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?!  

National and European Duathlon Championships 15-62-7,5 in Horst aan de Maas

Before I started this race I checked last years results and was shocked by how fast the run splits were. I was very happy it was ‘only’ a training race.

I finished my 2 hour bike ride on saturday with an ok feeling in the legs. Instead of having a bit of a rest we drove around half Belgium to get stuff that we usually don’t have time for. checked out the ‘skinfit’ shop in Nokere for some running stuff for Reiny, then to Oudenaarde for a different time trail saddle, followed by a stop at ‘de berghut’ in Hamme where we met my mum and dad. Around 5:30 pm we arrived in Venray, about 10km from Horst aan de Maas where the NK/EK duathlon championships were on the 17th of April. Check in, go to registration, get numbers, go to pasta party, have a chat to Diedrik and Els who were also racing and get some rest. I didn’t sleep very well, never do really, first night in a hotelbed. 

When the alarm finally went off I just grabbed my stuff and went downstairs for dinner with Reiny. Brekkie was great, but because I was racing I tried to stick to the usual cereal and milk. Couldn’t resist the krentenbollen so had a couple of them. 

I only had to check my bike in before 9 am so it was kind of a chill morning. In Transition it felt a bit funny not having to leave my nr on the bike to put on after the swim.. Seriously had the idea there was something missing :-S 

Last minute I decided to race in my Nike victory shoes. tried them a couple of weeks ago during a track training and loved them. Fast racing shoe if you’re used to Nike air zoom elite. 

We started at 9 am together with all the pro women. first we had to run 6 laps of 2,5km then ride 3 laps of 20 and a bit km and finish with 3 laps running of 2,5km. At the start the pro’s took off immediately. after about half a lap I saw someone running in front of me at a slightly faster pace than I wanted to do so I closed the gap and tried to stay with her. it was either that or running by myself. we were making a good time coming through in 11:30 after 1 lap. about a minute faster than my goal. I tried to work together with her but she was just a bit stronger than me and had to sit behind her until we came to T1. I took of my shoes, grabbed my energybars and helmet and started the bike leg. I made sure I wasn’t going all out because I wanted to do a 2nd decent run. goal was under 40 min. After the 1st lap on the bike in noticed the wind started to pick up a bit. But I was passing some women which was good. It felt like I was racing a crit more than doing a time trail. but i realized that was the same for everyone. Wouldn’t race with a tt bike again, too many corners. next time i’ll just put some aero bars on my road bike. In the 2nd and 3rd lap I passed a couple more women and I was hoping none of them would pass me on the next run. At T2 I quickly put my bike and helmet back and started my 7,5km final run. My hamstrings were really pulling at the beginning but that slowly went away. calves started giving me some trouble, but it was only  a couple of km’s to go so it wasn’t too hard to deal with. I finished in 3 hours 42 min and 27 seconds. before the race I told Reiny I would be happy with 3 hours 50 and stoked if I would go under 3 hours 45.. 

Looking back though, I should of gone a little bit harder on the bike. my bike leg was ok but I reckon I could of done 3-4 min faster and I don’t think it would of affected my 2nd run much.  my times were: 15 km run: 1:10:20 62km bike: 1:49:41 7,5km run: 39:45 and I got a first place in my age group, was the only one though ;-) 

I’m getting a bit more confident that I will do well in Rapperwil, it’s only a good 6 weeks away from now and it will be my 1st chance to qualify for the 70.3 worlds in Las Vegas this year. should be fun!