While perhaps this race recap looks intimidating to many of you, I encourage you read it! There is a lot of gems in here and this is the type of race recap that tells me that Bill trained and raced as optimally as he could have. Lots of great lessons learned here!
I won’t repeat the golden nuggets in here. However one thing I do want to lean in on a little is Bill’s feedback on pacing. It is very challenging to sit on your bike adhering to your target HR metrics and watch everyone passing you. Incredibly hard! But this is the mindset of a winner.
Balancing the bike and the run is like balancing a see saw. It does not mean that you push hard on your bike and than expect to also be able to push as hard as possible on the run. It’s about dialing back the bike a notch, particularly when all types of elements are being thrown at you (while everyone else is passing you) so that you can then pass everyone on the run (because they went too hard on the bike). Hard pacing strategy to learn until you experience it. It’s a glorious thing then!
From pacing to nutrition to small things that many overlook like a solid warm up, great work Bill! You nailed it!
As for AC 70.3, it sounds like someone wants redemption on the half Ironman distance! I would take a solid 7-10 days completely off. You won’t lose any fitness during this time. In fact, you will be well rested and ready to ease back into training. If you need two weeks, take it. Then as you ramp back up, you will be more mentally and physically ready to take on the training load.
Great work out there on Sunday, Bill! And thank you for sharing your experience (and lots of really good productive race strategies)! 🙂
