the meaning of "a training race"

when I say i'm doing a race and I call it training then it doesn't mean I won't give it my all! since my coach was giving me shit for saying this I thought I should explain why I keep mentioning this on my blog. a training race means, for me, that it's in the middle of a 4 week training cycle. week 1-3 I built up, and week 4 I take it easy. Because you don't get fitter just from training, resting is the most important bit! 

all the races i've done so far this year, were all after week 1, 2 or 3. I was tired from training, not at my best to race, but still gave it my all. 

I love the competition, I want to compare myself to other athletes and I'd like to kick their ass: even though that doesn't happen very often :-S I live from one race to the next one,  and I want to be better, faster, stronger every time.  same in training, I will give 100% every day. I stick to my heart rates, I watch my technique, If i'm not happy with a swimming drill I'll do it again, and again.. When I have to go hard, I will, but when I should take it easy, I take it easy. 

the best thing of it all: I love doing this. the whole swim-ride-run thing, it takes my mind of the usual daily crap. I hate my job, and being here in Gent but I have a training to look forward to almost every day. whatever gets you through the day right.. 

Having a good coach makes things a lot easier as well: you don't have to think about what training to do and when. For me, I just get a weekly scedule every sunday and all I have to do is follow it. 

next race is in Geel. Olympic Distance and I'm really hoping to have a good swim, strong bike and fast run. that should give me some confidence for Rapperswil 70.3 a month after that. 

So coach, from now on I will call a training race a B-race. it’s important that I make the most out of it but I won’t have any sleepless nights if I don’t perform well. It’s not anything less important then my A-races because the B-races will make me stronger for those ones, ok?!