Goals for 2017

Reflecting on this somewhat underwhelming season has me thinking ahead to my training for next season and the lessons learned from 2016. As always, the first step in developing a plan is establishing goals. For 2016 I had three main performance goals:

1) Go sub-2:20 in an Olympic distance triathlon
2) Make the top 10 in my age group at the National Standard Distance Championship
3) Consistently finish within the top 5 overall in the Somersault events

And I didn't meet any of these goals. Granted, they were all ambitious, but I think my failure to meet any of them despite making (what seemed to me anyways) some big strides in my training shows just how hard it is to become competitive at the level I'd like to be (at least for someone like me coming in with basically zero athletic background).

I have two races from 2016 that I can compare to 2015 - Smiths Falls and Brockville. This lets me see just what kind of progress I made over a year.

You can see that the improvements weren't dramatic in general, though there were some exceptions (Smiths Falls swim and Brockville run - and yes I used my projected time rather than my actual 9k time). I'm going to look at those stats as outliers and assume an across the board improvement of between two and three percent. If I see improvements along the same lines over the course of this upcoming training season, how fast will I go in 2017?

For Smiths Falls, this looks like somewhere around 1:03, so that will become my goal in 2016, at least until I get a better picture of my fitness in the spring.

But the Olympic distance is my priority distance. I didn't "peak" for Smiths Falls in 2016 and won't in 2017 either. It's a nice benchmark, but not the real measuring stick. My main goal this year was to break 2:20 in Brockville. Can I do it in 2017?

Based on my improvement projections, it looks like I'll fall just short. However, it's somewhat of a consolation that things didn't come together perfectly for that race. My taper was thrown way off by a family trip the week before, so maybe better to look at a race for which I was actually in top form.

At Nationals I produced better times in both the bike and run (1:07:51 for the bike, and 44:41 for T2 and the run), and that was a crowded bike course and a tough run. If I use those times and project a conservative 2% improvement, I'm under my 2:20 goal for next year.

So there's hope yet. Reviewing how my training progressed last year, I think I've got a better handle on what my body responds best to - for example I made more progress when taking a rest day rather than when I switched to 7 days a week. If I can benefit from this experience and train a little smarter in 2017, that should help my odds of getting under 2:20.

Now whether I do the 1000 Islands or Smiths Falls races again remains to be seen. I ended this season feeling somewhat demotivated and have been considering going in a different direction for 2017. Maybe try some different races further afield? Try a 70.3? And then there's the question of doing Nationals here in Ottawa again before it moves to a different venue for 2018. More on that thought process later.

40k Time Trial

Two milestones I'd like to hit in my multisport fitness are doing a 40km time trial on the bike in under an hour, and running a 5k under 20 minutes. Neither of these feats are all that extraordinary in and of themselves, but they've given me good goals to shoot for within each sport. Once my triathlon season was over, it was time to focus on other goals, and these are what I've set out for myself.

Like last year, I plan on doing a run focus this fall. That will culminate in some sort of race. Meanwhile swimming, when I start up again, will be just once a week and biking will be for pleasure only - no more grinding away on the trainer in the basement and no more suffering through intervals. So... now's the time for me to take a stab at the 40km time trial, while I'm still carrying some bike fitness from the tri season.

My parents and in-laws live in Perth, and as luck would have it, the stretch of road between Perth and Franktown is perfect for time trialing. Wide, paved shoulders, no major hills, pavement in good conditions, and just over 20km long. This is where the Almonte Bicycle club does their 40km time trials, and that's how I discovered this route.

So on saturday I set out to try to go sub-1 hour. I knew this was going to be hard, but if nothing else would give me a feel for what a 1 hour threshold effort really feels like and be a good learning experience I can apply to subsequent efforts. The result was a pretty-damn-close 1:01:22 - I made several errors that collectively cost me enough time that I feel like I probably could break one hour if I made another run at it. Not this year though. It's onto my run focus.

Interesting data from this endeavor though. I graphed speed vs. power for this TT and my 3 races this year, and it looks like this:

You can see that I pushed a lot more power during the TT (nice not to have to run afterwards), and this translated into a lot more speed. Interesting that my speed was pretty similar in each of the 3 races. The biggest difference was Smiths Falls vs. Nationals, which produced a variance of only 0.6 km/hr, on a power difference of 20 watts. I pushed another 20 watts higher than this in my TT, but saw an increase in speed of 2.5 km/hr. I attribute this to some different choices in apparel as well as being more diligent holding an aerodynamic position (something I struggled with in races this year).

The impact of aerodynamics is shown even more starkly when I looked at a ride I did earlier in the week with my normal training set-up rather than my race set-up. I did a 20km sort-of-TT (not really going all-out but seeing what kind of wattage I could hold) and averaged 37.4 km/hr on 246W. Compare that with the 40k TT where I averaged 39.2 km/hr on 237W. So almost 2 km/hr faster on nearly 9 less watts. Gotta work on holding that head position better in races next year.

Looking back on some season stats: Part 1

While this season was a bit of a bust for me, I still learned a few things that will (hopefully) help me out next season. One of those things was what sort of tapering works best for me. Unfortunately there's no "one-size-fits-all" approach to tapering for a race. Some people seem to need a longer taper, other respond best to a short taper. Some race best on only a slight reduction in training load, while others need more. There's some basic principles behind the concept, but it does seem as though each person has to do a little trial and error and see what's most effective for them.

This year I used Golden Cheetah to track my bike fitness. I could have used it for my run training too, but I didn't. Here's what my Performance Management Chart looked like for the season:

I've highlighted each of the 3 races I did and where my Training Stress Balance was. You can see that Smiths Falls was a lower priority race for me, so I didn't taper all that much. My form was definitely on the upswing, but I still had a negative TSB. Since Nationals was my "A" race, I did a full-on taper, and was well into positive TSB territory. For Brockville I had an even higher TSB - this wasn't by design, but I had a family trip down to the Philadelphia that week that really impacted my ability to train.

So what does this chart tell me? It's hard to really compare bike performances in each race, since I had difference power targets that I wanted to hit in each. I think the best indicator is actually how well I ran - the more bike-fit I was, the more I should have had left in the tank for the run. And my bike taper is pretty similar to my run taper. So where was my best run performance? Nationals, by far. Not only did I average my best pace of the season there, but I did it on what was definitely the hardest run course. So if this is a reflection of my taper, then the answer to the question "what type of taper works best for me?" is the classic Goldilocks answer of "not too little, not too much". My TSB wasn't high enough for Smiths Falls (not that it was supposed to be at that point in the season) but was way too high for Brockville.

So next season I'll make sure that I plan my "A" race around a TSB that is positive, but only a little, probably somewhere between 3 and 6. What and when that "A" race will be I haven't decided. I'm still pondering next season, and am weighing a few different options. Stick with the short-course stuff? Try something longer? Make another run at Nationals? Try some different races further away?

A disappointing end to a disappointing season

My race report of the Thousand Islands Olympic race is up. Not only did I not meet my goals for the race, but I had to DQ myself due to a mistake made on the run course. After the cancellation of Perth, and the swim-cancelled National Championship, it's almost fitting that this is how my season finished.

I take a few positives from this race in that I would have at least cracked the Top 5 overall, and I did learn a few more things about what type of tapering strategies work (and which don't work) for me.

As of now I'm done with triathlon for this year. I've got a few other goals I want to work on - I'd like to officially break 20 minutes for a 5K run, and am toying with running a half-marathon this fall; I'd also like to try my hand at time-trialing on the bike, perhaps taking a crack at a 1 hour 40km TT.

The "A" race that didn't happen

Race report is up for Nationals. Long story short - it didn't go well. They cancelled the swim and replaced it with another run. Not only did this put me at a significant disadvantage since I'm a much better swimmer than runner, but it totally threw off my bike leg, as it resulted in challenges I hadn't anticipated. I had lost my confidence and motivation before the race even began, and what followed was a comedy of errors and an underwhelming result. It's tough to have the race I've been planning for since the winter not happen, so now I've go to shift my focus to something else.

My goal was to go sub 2:20 for the Olympic Distance, and this will remain my goal this season. Looks like I'll only have one chance to do it though (Thousand Islands). Two positives I'll take out of Nationals are that I managed to run relatively well (43 minutes) and if I take my overall time less the first run (54 minutes) that means I have 26 minutes to complete the swim.

The look of anguish on my face pretty much sums up the whole race

I felt that going sub-26 in the swim was totally reasonable for Nationals, based on a no-wetsuit assumption. With wetsuits, some adjustments to my bike pacing, and a flatter run course, I'm optimistic that breaking 2:20 in Brockville is well within my grasp. If I can do that, then I'll call this a successful season. With the cancellation of Perth and running Nationals as a Duathlon, things haven't been going according to plan so far.

First one down, less than a month until Nationals

My race report is up for Smiths Falls. All in all a decent start to the season.

Positives:
- Improved my time overall and in each discipline
- The achilles was not an issue during the race or afterwards
- Surprised myself on the swim
- Had fun reconnecting with some old rivals

Negatives:
- The heat was oppressive - reminded me I don't do well when it's really hot
- Didn't quite see the gains I had been hoping for on the bike and run
- Failed to win my AG for the first time

Overheated at the end of the race! 

 

The race definitely gave me some food for thought heading into the big race at the end of the month. I'm feeling good about where my fitness is at, and looking forward to being properly tapered and fully prepared for Nationals. But first, two big weeks with some pretty heavy training.

The Achilles Battle Continues

So it appears as though speedwork is out completely this season. The achilles recovery has gone well - I can run long distances outdoors with no ill effects - but once I try any sort of speedwork the pain returns. The good news is after a couple of days off I'm back to being more or less symptom-free. The eccentric heel drops continue, and I've also given my tendons a break by making some inserts for my Fastwitches by cutting up some stiff insoles to make heel lifts.

The first real dilemma of my season was this: race the Ottawa River Tri on June 11th, or the Smiths Falls Tri on the 25th. Racing the earlier race would mean my achilles rehab wouldn't be quite as far along, perhaps increasing the odds of worsening the injury. But, in the event that my body didn't respond well to that I'd have 6 weeks recovery before Nationals. On the other hand, I'd likely be more recovered for Smiths Falls, less likely to create any major problems, but would leave myself only 4 weeks to recover for Nationals.

In the end I decided I'd rather take a chance at getting my achilles healed. If I hurt it on the 11th, odds are it wouldn't be recovered within 6 weeks anyways, so at least by waiting until the 25th I've got a fighting chance of having the issue resolved. The other argument in favour of Smiths Falls is it would allow me to properly compare my progress from last year.

Looking at the results of yesterday's Ottawa River Triathlon, there were some pretty fast times put up. Whether that's due to a fast course or lots of fast folks coming out of the woodwork, I don't know. I'll have to wait another two weeks to get a better assessment of how I measure up.