Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Race Plan?

Given how I have been feeling lately, I have adopted a new plan for my race on Saturday in Sylvan Lake. It is basically called "the balls to the walls" strategy and will have me attempt to go hard in the first two events and hang on for the run. Since the run is normally my best event, and since I am expecting problems with it, I will go out and see if I can blast through the swim and the bike.
Looking over my training log since May I am, as usual a little light on the cycling side as far as miles go. However, there has been steady improvement in my power output and cadence so I think I continue to get stronger on the bike. Generally I am fairly conservative on the bike, not wanting to trash my legs and have nothing left for the run. But on Saturday I am going to abandon that strategy for something more aggressive and let the chips fall where they may. I was hoping the Achilles thing would have run it's course by now, but it hasn't. Unfortunately the problem is not totally related to my training regime, and I just have to wait for the current cycle of issues to subside. It's just too bad that it came along at this time as I was really thinking that the Sylvan Lake race could be a good one for me. It still can be a good experience for me as I will test myself on the disciplines in which I am not as strong.
After a few swims where I was struggling with technique, this week it has all come back to me. Yesterday's swim was a very smooth 2,200 metres where I think I realized what I was doing that I wasn't doing before. My body rotation was much better and I wasn't swimming so flat. My predilection for the swim buoy more than likely contributes to swimming flatter so I will have to watch myself with using it as a swim aid in the future.
In the evening I did a quick 17 miles on the bike in 50 minutes. Legs felt a little heavy after the ride and my Achilles were very tight. And therein lies my concern, the ability to transition and get to a good running stride after the bike. It's going to hurt like heck and I am just hoping the once things get stretched out that it settles down and I can run.
So there is the plan as it sits right now. Now I just have to have the courage to actually do it on Saturday as I am usually ultra conservative.
Have a great day!

2 comments:

Jamie Anderson said...

Good luck this weekend. Look forward to reading how the new strategy pays out. Kick some butt!

Love2Run said...

Balls to the walls! I like that ;-) How about "pedal to the metal"? Good luck with the stupid achilles that won't self cure while training!! Dare we recommend rest before you do long term injury? Be careful out there!

"A very colorful phrase, one needs to be careful when using "balls to the wall". In fact it is from fighter planes. The "balls" are knobs atop the plane's throttle control. Pushing the throttle all the way forward, to the wall of the cockpit, is to apply full throttle."