As Cindy mentioned, we have been talking about back up plans. That said, since your current TP premium is for 6 months, this should run you through July. Thus the club is likely going to look at 3 months, which will get you through October. There are no HIM races in the local area after this timeframe.
So let’s talk about racing alternatives. If you were signed up for Eagleman and it gets postponed, we do not know what the contingency plan with be yet. However if you are able to transfer into another IM 70.3 race, they will likely take place in September or October (Maine, Atlantic City, Augusta, Memphis, North Carolina).
If you were signed up for a Kinetic Multisport race, you will likely be able to transfer to another Kinetic Multisport race like Patriot’s or Waterman’s. Both are in September.
From a training plan perspective, since there are so many race options, what you are able to do is cut and paste your training plan so you can reuse it again leading up to whatever race you chose. By doing so, you can continue to build on your current fitness base. Here are a number of ways how…
- For your mid week workouts, if the tempo efforts call for 4 x 5 with 5 minutes rest, you can bump that up to 6 x 5 minutes with 5 minutes rest. Or you can continue to do 4 x 5 minutes however decrease the rest (say 3-4 minutes instead).
- For your longer workouts, by redoing them, you are able to continue to better your aerobic capacity. Ideally, what you would like to see if that you are able to do a similar distance using the same or less cardiovascular output. Using less, is the best kind of conditioning we can seek. You can do the same type of approach with your mid week workouts
- Fine tune your details of the workout. Ensure that you are doing your warm up, cool down and recovery fully in zone 2. By doing so, then you should be able to push harder on your main set intervals. Compare your main set intervals to your previous efforts. Fine tune your cycling cadence, particularly on hills. Fine tune your running cadence so that you are hitting ideal running form from the start of your workout to the end.
- Continue to progress your run/walk interval. Perhaps running is not your strength and you have been building up with a run/walk interval of 5/1. Continue to progress your long run endurance so you move to a 6/1 or even an 8/1.
- Hopefully you will be able to swim again soon and this adds a completely different dimension to your current training load and periodization.
There is a ton of opportunity available to you to revisit many of these workouts so you can actually compare and recognize your improvements. Often we finish a season and never have a chance to look back and appreciate that you were able to accomplish. Perhaps this could be the silver lining for the HIP participants this season 🙂
Like Cindy mentioned, at least we have exercise as an outlet. This is one thing you can control in your life right now. So let’s use it to our advantage!
