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I think this race is doomed. I was signed up this year, this was going to be my third showing in a row at this race. Out of the three, only last year was a proper triathlon, with the swim cancelled in 2016.
Not a cheap race, it’s a nice course for sure but the bike can get very crowded and dangerous (would have been carnage with that much rain). I know the club wants to support it, it’s the local race and all that. My current feelings are: I’m not doing it again.
The link seems to be the wrong one? It takes me to an Eventbrite edit page, for which I don’t have authorization to access. It looks like the edit page for this event perhaps? Anyone else seeing this?
Thank you
I ended up my season last year doing Giant Acorn and had a blast. I wasn’t going to do that race but after the Nations swim fiasco I signed up for it. Had a great race (and good result to boot). If you haven’t done it, the course is similar to Kinetic International (I think the run is pretty much the same).
Hi Tina,
When I raced Kinetic earlier this season (Olympic) the weather wasn’t so good, it rained a lot the day before and we were looking at the possibility of sustained rain at race time. We lucked out and it ended up being not too bad (a bit of drizzle while swimming, that’s all). I had to worry about the bike being in transition while it was raining. The first thing to say is that nothing is going to happen to your bike if it gets wet. For an overnight downpour, I would protect the saddle with a plastic bag, some saddles when they get a lot of water just soak up and stay humid for a while, and while you won’t notice at first coming from the swim, it’s a bit uncomfortable.
I would also put a large towel covering from your cockpit to the saddle, it will get very wet if it rains but it will minimize the amount of water that gets to your drivetrain.
While the bike will be fine, I would take extra precautions with the other stuff in transition on race day. It’s not fun to bike in wet shoes, same thing for running. So I would make sure that I at least start with dry shoes each leg. If it’s raining they will get wet eventually, but that’s ok. Plastic bags are your friend here. I come from a very dry climate and am not a big fan of rain, but when cycling or running wet I keep reminding myself that it’s just water. So I’d say just roll with it and don’t worry too much, you’ve got this.
I hope you have a good race!!.
Juan
“At the end of an extended training regimen I always seem to be just worn out and I begin to doubt my overall fitness.”
I have felt this way too. Some days I feel fatigued, and I think part of this is also mental, because we’re almost there, and a structured training plan takes a mental toll always. Aside from having better days and worse days, I’m fatigued, yes. I’m racing Williamsburg, so roughly 2 weeks out. One last push!
“Are other folks struggling with the last hard/long workouts also or cruising through them?”
Not cruising at all. If I were cruising through workouts I would think I’m not working hard enough, I expect a healthy dosage of suffering. My runs are not getting faster, they may be getting a bit slower actually, and yes, I think part of that is temperature because if I run somewhat rested and with cooler temperatures (rare occasion lately) the numbers are there. There have been days where the long run on Sunday felt sluggish for sure, the last few 10 milers or so at tempo are a challenge with heat + humidity for me. I get them done, then look at my pace and go meh. I am sort of expecting my run to be underwhelming on race day, I just hope it doesn’t look like an episode of The Walking Dead. So as you can see you’re not alone in this self-doubt game, I have it too!
On the bike I have seen improvements lately, I have been paying attention to this part because I want to have a good “buffer” on race day for the run. Been practicing race pace, I find it helpful to choose whatever that may be for you and practice some longer intervals at that pace, as the training plan suggests. The hardest part about this for me is finding where to practice this. For me this next weekend it’s important to go alone, been riding with the DC Tri Club on Saturdays and it’s all fun but the pace there goes from easy at the beginning to hammerfest if you join the front group. Has been great for training, not so good now to nail down constant pacing.
I don’t think this last couple of weeks will bring any extra fitness for me, but I’m focusing more on race execution. Which can be hard, yesterday I had a practice 10k and it is hard to keep yourself motivated to push as if it were a race. Today I’m tired and enjoying the rest day!
Swimming I am at a nice plateau, haven’t made significant speed improvements in the last 1.5 months or so. Maybe some top end speed that I don’t intend to use on race day, but that’s about it. But I’m happy with where I am given the time put into it.
I totally get how you feel. I’ve had to remind myself to trust the training program when not feeling great. I think tapering will cure all of this and we will reach the start line fit, fresh and eager to race!
Hi Heidi,
The bridge is not as steep as that hill, and much shorter (out of Lake Anna you are climbing for the first mile, give or take, with the first hill out of transition being quite steep). This bridge is not as bad as I have probably made it sound, it’s just that anything else is SO flat that it stands out a bit. I just checked my file from the brick run and the climb is about 0.3 miles, average grade is about 3% (some sections in the middle are steeper than that).
Hi Carlos,
I’ve been through this last week, I had an infection that also affected my training. It’s infection season I suppose. FWIW I always use earplugs in the pool, although that wasn’t my problem. I don’t know if a week is too much or not, that is something that you will have to assess yourself. I didn’t take that long, I rested for 2 full days which is something I hadn’t done since December. Took the first couple of workouts very easy, with little expectations. This week is recovery week for me, so that has helped get back into it too. I feel super rested, and it shows in my workouts, even though it’s recovery week there is some intensity there and I feel very strong. You might be surprised what a little extra rest will give you, at least that’s how I feel right now (it’s actually been HARD sticking to the plan and holding back the last few days). I guess the main things is how do you feel? Does the idea of going out on a run or ride feel like something you want to do? I know when I was knocked down I certainly didn’t feel like it. You probably shouldn’t swim for a week, that can make it worse. As for adjusting the training plan, I will let coach AJ be more specific but in general with just one week you are not going to be losing much fitness, so you can treat those workouts as “it didn’t happen” and just move on to the next week.
Good luck healing, you will come out stronger on the other side (that’s what I keep telling myself, ha!)
Juan
I purchased a ticket for the Williamsburg camping weekend, looking forward to it. I have a few newbie questions: what is included with the price of the ticket? Do I need to reserve camping space on my own, or did the club secure a campground for the group? I have seen that there are rides with SAG support, do we need to sign up for those separately? Is there any additional information anywhere? (I’ve seen the website, but it only contains link to register and not much more).
Thank you
I was supposed to race Rock Hall. Last weekend after my long run I came down with an infection (not sure if related to training; could be, but who knows). I’ve had a very tough early week (pain, fever) and have been able to resume training in the last few days, but I’ve taken it easy. This is new territory for me, as I rarely get sick, and it’s too bad because I was feeling strong (now, not so much; but I’m getting there). I think I could have raced, but seeing the times posted by most people, wow, that was a fast race on Saturday.
I’m new at this getting sick and recovering thing, what I’ve done is just go by feel with an extra eye on HR. I’ve ignored pace / speed / power for a few days, just wanted to get back into things. This past weekend I was able to train 50% of the volume prescribed (for Rev3, that’s the week with the most volume) and I actually felt OK. Not super great, but fine. I felt like I could have done more, but wanted to train/rest, if that makes sense at all. This morning in the pool I swam faster than usual, so that’s a good sign (I’m more rested I guess). I’m actually kind of glad we don’t have 2+ hrs runs anymore (well, race day for me will be like that; but then it’s just suffer time).
I just signed up for the training camping weekend at Williamsburg, that will be my main focused preparation. Is anyone else here going?. So no more races before the main event for me. I was looking at maybe squeezing a race towards the end of June but my schedule doesn’t work and I actually prefer to focus on practicing HIM race pace for the next few weeks, I feel like I need that. There will be more races in the second half of the season for me hopefully.
PS: on top of all this, I have a new bike and helmet, just a couple weeks old. I am now 100% on my professionally fit position and more aero, but still getting used to the new kit.
