When I was in college I had fairly good grades and was proud of them. But my freshman year was a struggle and I had a C in Chemistry. Miami had a rule were you could take the course again and replace the grade. So I took Chemistry again but guess what? I got a C again. Why? I did not change a thing about my preparation and thought that because I had already taken the class I would do better. A similar situation can happen to many triathletes I think. If you race this week and you got your butt kicked because of lack of fitness. For the most part racing a couple of weeks later will not change that much. There are a few things one can change to get a better outcome like nutrition and pacing. But fitness is not going to change unless you pound the pavement and train.
This is exactly where I am now. I have to hit the road. I have raced quite a bit over the past few months so I have to get in shape for Kona and Clearwater. This idea of not doing so many races is sometimes hard to sell to athletes. Many people just love racing. Some people race many weeks in a row. Racing usually requires some period or taper and then some period of recovery. This prevents them from getting in the required sessions that can take them to the next level. Of course some people live for the races and ultimately happiness is more important than going to the next level. I prefer to have my best performance at the big races and that makes me happy.
I was so ready to hit the pavement after Vineman but I was very sore for a few days and knew that I could not push it. So I waited until this week and got in some good training. I got in a 2 hour run and my plantar acted up a little. I also road my bike for 6 hours in Boulder. It was super hot down there. My training partner Dave has one of those watches that measure the temperature. The average temperature was 92 and the high was 98. That was really good heat training. I took the next day off to hang with my son Camilo but I think I forgot to hydrate well that day and now have a cold. Of course the real source of the cold is my kids pre-school; they got sick from there last week so I caught it after my immune system got weak from long training. That really stinks but that is life eh? No one said that this was going to be easy even for the coach.
As you can imagine I am helping a number of people train for Kona. The means that I know what they are doing, right? Well I really have to have confidence on what I am doing for myself because some of my athletes are so far ahead of me. The funny thing is that they also wonder if they are on the right track. Sure you are I say. If they could only see my schedule they will feel much better. There is plenty of time. In fact if we were way too far in shape then we start risking burn out by September when the training counts the most.