I just want to say that I am so revlived to be back racing mulitisport, now this wasn't a top race and I haven't a clue on what the field was, but you can only race who is there on the day. But to finish 1st in my age group on my return to racing was a very joyful experience.
Tri Ferris Cotswolds Triathlon:
Swim - Well this was the first competitive swim that I have done in two years and boy I have to be honest it was; tough, cold and felt ever so long. Now this is an area I know I need more work in and I have to work hard to stay with the front groups, this was not going to happen today. I was able to finish the 750m in 13mis odd mins and then out the water into transition. I forgot just how hard it was to change out of a wetsuit, and I will be investing in one that fits much better for next season. Transition done, and now for the first test, have I been able to recovery from over doing it during the summer holidays and not multi-sport races for 6 months.
Bike - I started the bike, first frozen from the lake swim, but after about 2/3 mins I was able to get going and really find some power, things went well and I really felt strong. I was able to push and push through the whole ride, chasing people down made me feel very strong and I enjoyed every min of it. There were a few people I passed during the ride that I knew would be in my age group and I made sure I passed them and put plenty of time into them on the bike. I made it round with my watts stayin high and still feeling fresh.Bike done now for the tough bit, have I still got run legs.
Run - I literally flew out of transition and into the 5k with everything I had, I literally stormed the first lap of 2 and kept the pace high throughout. I actually managed a 5k PB 16.49! so that as a good start to a bit of end of season racing.
So I finished feeling good, high and happy with the race that I had just completed! I gave it all and was happy with how I felt!
Got the result and bam...1st in age group. So that made it all in all a very successful day!
RECOVERY and OPTIMAL WEIGHT
This is something that I have struggled with for a long time, and truth be told may have a battle with it for a long time to come. I love to train, but getting the balance right is so important. Finding this is very hard. I have literally changed back to the old way I used to eat, well almost....not so much rubbish food in my diet. I am not as lean as I would like to look, but watts are up and run legs are faster....so why no keep to this way of performing right and training. We are judged by results and not by the way we look!
I pushed things too far during July and became far to lean, I was living with a diet that suited a body builder and not an endurance athlete trying to improve. It wasnt working and need to change. It was even suggested by my coach (Matt Botrill http://www.mattbottrillperformancecoaching.com/) that I had overcooked it and needed to end my season, but I knew there was more to it than that and I had been getting things wrong. I have now been working hard in eat correctly, recover and making improvements. It will come but slowly. This winter will be big and I want to come out the other end very strong. At current I am now working towards the national duathlon championships in October, and hoping to race well. I am chasing some time trial results a 10 PB with one race left and also a 25 PB with also only one race left.
I try and listen to as much advise as possible, but to be honest I struggle to find the formula. This podcast is a great start and literally states that there isnt a formula to follow, other than listen to your body.
https://dub115.mail.live.com/?tid=cmObXXaNlS5RGfGwAiZMJJbA2&fid=flinbox
Amazing podcast from REST WISE
-By revoering more you train less.....myth
-By recovering more you can train harder and better
-You only recover when you REST, yes but what is the formula?
-Exercise+training stress = does not make you stronger fitter faster, you only recover when you are not training.
-It is the bodies response to training stress that improves fitness, weight less, speed what ever the designed outcome is. These can be monitored HR, Watts, weight.
-Outside/life stress can also have an influence....job, life, relationships.
-Endurance athletes have focus - dedication = training volume. (this is what we all are aware of).
-Long base miles allow us to become efficient as an endurance athlete.
-Over trained is a medical condition, being fatigued is different.
Nutrition:
Recovery interventions - nutrition - fulling strategies to help recovery - adsorb and adapt - dont ignore it, but don't think nutrition = recovery!
You can eat all the best food in the world, but it is not going to fix poor recovery practices.
So what can we do to recover?
-Capture the date we need.
-Take resting HR, 30sec after waking-find trending-this will then quantify the data-its a conformation practice and not an intuitive practice-confirm you are feeling the right way, or not.
-You dont have to change you training scheduled, but make better decisions. Get the most out of the harder day, you will then benefit from this is the long run.
If you are an athlete and you are have felt, are feeling flat during a race or a training then this 9/10 is due to the fact that you have not recovered efficiently, not that you haven't recovered, but you have not recovered properly. As athletes we judge ourselves too much on how much or what training we are doing and not the results of the training. When do we every say, oh I feel great today before a training session....it is always oh man I did this yesterday, I buried myself doing that!
We need a shift, and we need to bring in a sense of well being, enjoyment to go faster and harder and get the most out of training.
https://endurancefilmsti.com/videos/339
This below is also a fab article and can be found on the link below!
Every athlete has an optimal racing weight. I define this as the weight at which an athlete performs best in races. Because athletes are more often above their optimal racing weight than right at it, they tend to associate losing weight with gaining performance. This association leads some athletes to make weight loss their primary focus and to push performance into the background.
The problem here is that it is possible to lose weight in a way that unnecessarily limits or even sabotages performance. Indeed, the dietary and training methods that produce the most weight loss are entirely different from those that maximise performance. If you practice the methods that are most effective for weight loss, the best possible outcome is that you will improve more slowly and to a lesser degree than you would otherwise. And in the worst-case scenario, you will end up below your optimal racing weight and slower than you were when you started the process.
In other words, if your goal is maximum performance, you need to stay focused on performance. Eat and train to get faster and trust that your weight will take care of itself. Do not eat and train to get lighter and count on your performance to improve as the number on the bathroom scale comes down.
Let’s get specific. The most effective way to lose weight is to maintain a low-carb diet and follow a mostly high-intensity training program. The most effective way to gain fitness is to maintain a moderate- to high-carb diet and follow a mostly low-intensity training program. But don’t take my word for it—let’s look at the research.
Running on Empty
A number of studies have shown that well-trained endurance athletes who switch from a moderate- to high-carb diet to a low-carb diet get even leaner than they were to begin with. The most recent study of this kind was conducted by a team of Polish researchers led by Adam Zajac. Eight competitive mountain bikers were placed on each of two diets for four weeks in random order. One diet was high in fat and low in carbohydrate, consisting of 15 percent carbohydrate, 70 percent fat, and 15 percent protein. The other diet was balanced, consisting of 50 percent carbohydrate, 30 percent fat, and 20 percent protein.
The low-carb diet made the athletes significantly leaner. After four weeks on the low-carb diet, their body fat percentage was 11.02. Compare that to an average body fat percentage of 14.88 after four weeks on the balanced diet. But the fat loss that the athletes experienced on the low-carb diet was associated with a significant decline in performance. On the balanced diet, the subjects generated 257 watts at lactate threshold intensity and 362 watts during a 15-minute maximal effort. On the low-carb diet, these numbers dropped to 246 watts and 350 watts. According to the study authors, the cause of the decline on the low-carb diet was impairment of the muscles’ ability to burn carbs, which is critical to performance at higher intensities.
http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2015/06/08/why-not-all-weight-loss-is-good-weight-loss#hj8uAZPcvcRzTee1.99
