Too Much vs. Too Little

After racing just three times in the first three months of the triathlon season, Coach Derick and I have decided its time for a few tweaks to the race season plan.  After a big two week training block that kicked off this past weekend, its time to jump in several races and just let it fly.  Admittedly, I haven't produced any acceptable results in the early going- so now I am going to experiment with some aggressive, more frequent racing.   

Figuring out the right dosage of competition vs training is something that every endurance athlete deals with, and the appropriate answer is often highly dependent on the individual.  It's easy to overdo things with the increasing popularity and explosive annual growth of available races in the U.S.  From March to November, almost every weekend gives you the opportunity to be a rock star- and that is exactly what some overeager triathletes try to do.  Racing is a great way to reach a training stimulus you can't quite replicate on a midweek run, but there does come a point of diminishing returns.  An athlete that races too often risks interfering with the recovery from each race effort.  Sometimes during the cycles of progressive overload that training and competing bring, you have to rest as hard as you race.  Additionally, an athlete that jumps in races two weekends out of every four probably doesn't get to apply appropriate blocks of beneficial training between races.  If you are always in constant flux of recovering from last week's race while trying to apply a taper for this weeks big event, when does the work get done?


Racing too little can prove to be detrimental as well.  As mentioned above, a properly timed race provides an intensity and training effect that you just can't replicate during a normal training week.  An early season race can be a great indicator of current fitness during a build towards an 'A' race, while giving you a chance to work on the sometimes overlooked technical aspects of triathlon- fueling, transitions, etc.  Shorter events can be a great way to integrate bouts of faster than race pace speed into a training block.     


The second half of 2011 will have me racing 7-8 times as it mapped out now, starting with the Morton Plan Mease sprint triathlon down in Clearwater, Florida. 

The MPM sprint is a popular race on the Gulf Coast, drawing 1,000+ athletes while offering a small elite field and a prize purse.  I am really looking forward to seeing my parents on this trip, an added bonus is that I'll get to spend several days riding on familiar country roads and getting some yardage in at the local 50 meter pool.  A couple of July events will be decided upon in the next few days, check back to the race calendar after the weekend and I should have everything updated.