Racing Twice in 24 Hours: What My Training Actually Prepared Me For

So the Sunday race was a sprint distance race.

I was competing in the Clydesdale division.

I've been competing in the Clydesdale division now since last season.

I'm seeing really good performance in this division.

So I think Sunday told a really great picture on where I'm at and being competitive and in triathlon and in particular this division and whether I need to make a decision to continue to compete in the Clydesdale division or to move in back into my age group the question is do I really want to stay in this division even though I qualify to be in this division am I holding myself back from the Things like being able to qualify for age group nationals because racing in a Clydesdale division or an Athena division means that your race performance doesn't count towards getting a qualifying spot for age group nationals for USA Triathlon.

And that's one of my bucket list things that I would like to be able to do is to one day qualify for the Olympic distance age group nationals and be able to go compete with that level of athlete.

I am trying to get myself squared away to get a qualifying spot for age group aqua bike.

This is the first time I've done an aqua bike.

I was curious on how I could perform, where I would stack up.

and really see what kind of potential I would have in order to determine whether this is a path that I feel is worth walking down.

Because there's a significant effort in terms of chasing that particular path because there's an opportunity cost associated with racing aqua bike.

It means that I'm minimizing other aspects of my training plan and whether it's a worthwhile approach or not, or if I just go a different way.

And so this race in particular, the Patriot race was my first foray into aqua bike racing.

And I really wanted to get a taste of what it's like and how I can perform.

So I think the main question that I want to answer in this episode, and as I've been walking through my race analysis here in my office, The question that I've been asking myself is what did my training actually prepare me to do? And I think this is an important question for anyone who is interested in either increasing performance or stepping up in their caliber of races in terms of whether you want to move from sprint to Olympic to half, half to full.

Really, we're trying to answer how efficient is my training methodology? Is there something that I'm not doing? taking to account, do I need to do something differently? There are small changes that we can make within the emphasis and the focus within the training plan that will be enough of a catalyst or stimulus in order to generate additional adaptation.

So that's really the question that I'm trying to answer is that I've been using this same method for quite a few years, and I'm trying to figure out, okay, I want to become a smarter, wiser coach and athlete, so I need to figure out what is it that I don't know.

And what is it that I've stuck with because it's how I've always done it? If I need to move away from this thought process of I'm just interested in completing is good enough for me because right now where I'm at in my journey, I'm...

I feel like I want a little bit more.

I want a little bit more than just say, hey, I completed the day.

I want to say I performed.

But in order to say that, I have to determine whether my training is efficient, whether it's focused appropriately, and what is it that I'm not doing or what I am doing that is working or not working.

So let's take a look now over on what the training looked like for this particular race.