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Written by Vince
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Monday, 29 June 2009 05:28 |
If you've ever asked me for advice about your training, I've probably told you to SLOW DOWN. This has been my mantra all season but a recent forum post got me to thinking about it again. The question: "Why are you running fast, if you're racing slow?"
When I came to the conclusion that "slow is the new fast", I didn't really think about why I was going fast in the first place, I just realized that slow was better. But the forum question got me to think about why.
I consider last year the rebirth of my training. Prior to last year, I had two speeds: OFF and FAST. I was your basic unstructured, un-coached athlete and my workouts were determined by the amount of remaining time in my day. I guess my logic was that I should make good use of that time by training fast because fast will make you faster... right? But then I hired a coach, my workouts became structured, and I became much faster than I had in previous years and it happened almost overnight.
With a season filled with races, I set at least 6 PR's last year at various distances including Ironman. I saw great progress from hiring a coach and I was gaining confidence but in the back of my mind, I was still the guy with two speeds.
The unfortunate part of racing Ironman is that you have to plan far in advance. While in the middle of the 2008 race season, I signed up for the 2009 Ironman Lake Placid event and already started thinking about my goal which I can basically summarize with the following -- go faster.
Great! I had a goal but then the question became... how do I go faster? The first answer I came up with was to increase the frequency and volume of my swimming and biking because at the time, I was satisfied with my running. Of course now I feel that running is my limiter but that's a different topic altogether.
My 2009 training began with an increase in volume over last year but I capped it at a level that allowed me to absorb the training. And like last year, I saw large gains in the Base period and I've managed to PR at two distances.
When I entered the Build period, the volume started to decrease slightly and the intensity started to increase. But a funny thing happened -- when the speed work appeared in my workouts, I wasn't embracing it like I was in my previous years or even last year. I actually started to question it because it just didn't seem to make sense. When I noticed a drop in my numbers, I immediately changed my workouts to what I felt was a more inline with my goal of racing Ironman. Not too long after making those changes, my numbers were back on track.
I still feel my training has leveled off but what I think is necessary to take it to the next level is not the kind of change I want to make so close to my "A" race. I think what I would do differently is spend more time in Base, and when I do enter a Build period, the majority of the intensity will be race specific. This seems to be what I respond to better than anything else. To be honest, I might just train in Base until I see my training level off -- that's what I need to figure out.
Now I have an idea as to how I will get faster but I still haven't answered the original question as to why I was going fast in the first place. The answer is quite simple -- the reason why I was training fast was because I was afraid of being slow. This has more to do with lacking confidence than anything else but I'm slowly shedding those fears as I try to keep my emotions out of my training. <-- That's a tough task!
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