Saturday, October 29, 2005

Racing or training: pick one

I just snuck a look at my October swim/bike/run totals. WHOOPS! They're way down. I doubt that I will hit many of my goals for this month.

That's okay with me, because I'm taking it a little on the slow side before I launch my 50-week IM training plan on November 21st.

I can't believe I'm calling a month in which I have completed a marathon and I'm preparing for a second marathon "a little on the slow side", but there it is. What a change in perspective, eh?

Lesson learned? As much as I like doing races, and as much as I hate to admit it, they DO cut into my training time. It's difficult to keep up the daily training grind when you're gearing up for a race or winding down from it. I need to keep that in mind when I formulate my training plan for the Ironman. I need to be sure to keep my Eyes On The Prize and be strict about limiting my taper and recovery periods for the "B" and "C" races on my schedule, or skip those races entirely.

2 comments:

William said...

One skill I would love to learn would be to race like a pro.

What I mean by that is, race on a weekend with little or no taper and at a speed that leaves me ready to train the following week.

How do these guys/gals do it?

Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

Good luck with your IM training Nancy. I agree sometimes too many races can throw a wrench into one's training plans.

Even a slow poke like me, tends to run harder and faster on race day so even though the race might be the distance of the training run, racing it usually means extra rest after. If only on race day we could remember to run it like a training run. But then why pay the $ for a race, okay sometimes its cause there's a cool shirt, great food and ummm scenery...lol.