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Hi gang,
I appreciate all of the comments above. You’re not alone in feeling a bit mentally & physically sluggish!!
My only suggestions are as follows…
* You’re done. There’s nothing you can do now to make yourself fitter for race day. So don’t push it. Trust in the work you’ve done. I’d rather you show up a little undertrained than a little overtrained. Relax if you need to (but keep a little intensity in an otherwise reduced activity taper)
* It’s hot. So…you will need to drink more. And eating may become problematic. And yes your pace will be slower. Chase the feeling, not the pace. You will know if you’re going too hard. If it’s 90 degrees you WILL run slower. Everyone does. Don’t let pace be your gauge of success.
* Drink on the bike so you’re not too dehydrated on the run (you WILL be somewhat dehydrated). Keep yourself cool on the run by drinking at every station, using ice/sponges, and pouring water on your head/body.
* Taper. Sometimes I feel great. Sometimes I feel lousy. It doesn’t matter. If you feel sluggish in the next week or so, don’t let it get you down. It really doesn’t matter on race day.
* Have fun! You’ve worked hard. Now it’s time to enjoy the race. Think about what you’ll tell yourself when things get tough. And they will. Everyone (pros too) have negative periods during a long race – the key is pulling yourself out of it quickly.
Good luck everyone!
-Chris
From AJ…
As a follow up to Brian’s post, I encourage you to take 3-4 days completely off. Nothing but prioritizing sleep. After a few days, see how you feel. Start back gradually with a swim or very easy spin. No running and no workouts until you are feeling 100% again. That said, how are you determining race speed? Race speed only comes as a byproduct of your race HR. There is no race speed otherwise. And if you are following an arbitrary race speed that you want (ie not correlated with appropriate HR), then you have likely been pushing too hard for too long. (As a side note, this is the downside of these training programs. Data analysis must be done honestly by each participant versus individual coaching where I review it weekly). So my guess is that you have been forcing a speed that you want but is too fast for the appropriate HR equivalent and it has lead to overtraining.
In the end, first and foremost, you must get ahead of overtraining. No speed, no race, no nothing trumps your health. So take all workouts off through the rest of the mid week. Start back with an easy swim on Friday or Saturday and then a ride the following day. If you are still not feeling 100%, then you need more time off. Fold in running last and only when you are 110%. And when you do come back, it’s all about HR (not speed or pace). There is a reason I didn’t talk about speed or pace during the Kick Off Meeting, any of the clinics, any of the recordings, on the forum or in the Athlete’s Guide. It always leads to the same place and it’s not typically where you want to be. So let’s rest up and get you ahead of this with a refocus on HR. If so, you should have a solid race ahead for you. Now, go sleep!’
A note from our head coach and intrepid traveler AJ, who is out of the country and blocked from accessing the forum…
Congratulations, Cindy, on your first Half Ironman! White Lakes HIM is definitely known to be a very challenging race. While I haven’t done this race personally, I have done Timberman more times than I can count and I can attest to both the challenging yet rewarding terrain on New Hampshire! We are pleased to hear that the training program was helpful and helped you get to the finish line of your race. Of course, this is also a good testament to your hard work and dedication to the training program! So nice work!
That said, Cindy, did you have any of the same fatigue/second guessing yourself feelings going into your Half Ironman? Just curious before I share my feedback!
However I don’t want to waste anymore time responding to the feedback shared on the forum. First off, thank you for sharing your feelings and feedback. All of you are correct! The way we get you ready for your Half Ironman is to make you fatigue resistant to take on this new distance. And yes, that means that we need to fatigue you first and then rest (taper). You will be surprised how great you then feel for race day.
A couple of caveats…this should be the case if you have followed the training plan and your corresponding HR zones. If not, you could be in an overtraining situation or just flirting with this fine line. If you have done all of your longer workouts truly in zone 2 and then took your rest week leading into race specific workouts, you should be fatigued but not spent. Long workouts are meant to be done at an easy pace for this reason, which is why training for this distance is not meant for speed. I know everyone keeps talking about getting faster. You have been training for endurance NOT speed. Let’s just be pleased, like Cindy, for completing the distance. Then with the experience, you can start working on completing this distance at a faster speed.
I digress…Then with your rest week between your peak (endurance) longer but easier workouts, you then head into race specific workouts. They are a zone higher (zone 3, race specific) but shorter. Therefore you should be fatigued but not depleted. When you are fatigued, there is mental fatigue, as well as physical fatigue. Thus this is why many of you are feeling the way you are. Just do what you can with your race specific workouts. If you can’t manage the full workout, get in some of the race specific efforts (to minimize cramping) but scale back on the overall volume of the workout. You don’t want to drop all race specific efforts if possible since this is what primes your body to race at this paced. Otherwise, in a race setting, this is typically what causes cramping.
Finally, due to the mental and physical fatigue, it is not unusual that you are not getting a higher LT result with your baseline test. In fact, I am surprised that some of you have received fitness progress, as a result of your baseline tests, at this point. This is a true testament of your overall fitness progress, which is why we retest right before your race. This way you have your most current HR zones to work with for your race plan (!!) and your race. However if you did not see improvements, this is not unusual. You are under a heavy volume and mental and physical fatigue. That does not mean that you have not gained fitness. Obviously you have but it’s more in the form of endurance, not as much in speed. Remember LT is your threshold of zone 4. This is not what we are training with half Ironman training. Yes, an increase LT is often a by product of this training but this is not what we are exclusively training. If you want to keep increasing your LT, you need to focus on sprint and Olympic distance (ie speed).
Finally, the best way to minimize the second guessing of yourself is to start working on your race plan! This is the whole purpose of the race plan. The more prepared you are the less you can second guess yourself. Now that you have your HR baseline tests complete (again), you have all that you need to start working on your race plan. So in an effort to calm those nerves and start getting you into race mode, you have homework. Get that race plan in place and you minimize the room for second guessing.
In the end, everything you are feeling is normal unless you have pushed too hard on your longer, easier (zone 2) workouts throughout the season or have not gotten adequate rest. I am traveling for continuing education learning right now and one of the coaches state that overtraining should really be called ‘under-sleeping’ or ‘under-recovery.’ All of life stresses add into this equation not just training itself. They are not mutually exclusive. So rest up, get that race plan in place and you should be good and ready for Williamsburg HIM! Trust in the process!’
Thank you!
From our intrepid traveler Cindy Hutchings, who is traveling out of the country and blocked from the D.C. Tri but still thinking of the group…
Great write up Juan and thank you for sharing. I did the race last year and can add a couple observations:
Swim: To take advantage of the current, swim further from the shore. I did not last year since I wanted the shorter path and was slower than normal and fellow competitors. As for visibility, it was typical and not a “sonar” swim. I suspect closer to shore is less visible due to the bottom getting kicked up. If you want a true “sonar” swim, do a race in the Midwest in their murky waters 🙂
Bike: If you talk to a local, you will hear about the “hills”. Ha, ha in DC we call it rollers. If you do/have done the Saturday DC Tri ride, then you are ready for their “hills”.
One caution note – the half course merges back with the Olympic course towards the end. Last year there several accidents in this area. Not sure of the cause of the accidents, but pay attention. All it takes is someone fumbling with a bottle or nutrition.
Run: I have nothing to add. Be ready for the heat and humidity. That means coming off the bike hydrated in addition to staying hydrated during the run. And mentally be ready for the bridge since you get to run it 4x!
Happy training all!
Cindy
