Training Between Duathlons (and Thoughts on Cinco Du This Weekend)

I question my training often, but especially when I have races on back-to-back weekends; I never know what I should do with this week in-between. The Falls Duathlon was this past Saturday, and then I actually went for a 15 mile ride on Sunday. I usually take the following day completely off, but even right after the race, my legs felt OK (just heavy), so I spun them out on Sunday. Here’s what the last few days of training/recovery have looked like:

- Sat: Race.
- Sun: 15 mile easy/moderate ride and upper body.
- Mon: ladder swim and core.
- Tues: 2x5 mile intervals on the bike (23 miles total).
- Wed: easy 5 mile run (and upcoming leg and upper body workout).

On yesterday’s ride, I knew I needed to do something fast and hard (my bike was nothing but suffering at last weekend’s race). I often like to do 3x5 mile intervals, but I was afraid that could be too much this close to a race. My race this weekend is hilly, so I thought about doing some hills, but I didn’t want to burn out my legs. (It’s been about a year since I did a true hill workout on the bike.) So did 2x5 mile intervals, and then threw in another hard 3 miles at the end. My FIRST interval was into the wind in 15:33 (19.3 mph). Then after 3 mins of easy riding, my SECOND interval was with the wind in 12:25 (24.1 mph). After another easy 3 mins, I did 1.5 miles into the wind (4:42, 19.2 mph) and 1.5 miles with the wind (3:39, 24.7 mph) for a total of 8:21 (21.6 mph). I was well over 23 miles by the time I got back home.

Tomorrow I’ll swim, and Friday I’ll just stretch. Then the Cinco DU Mayo Duathlon on Saturday!

Usually, my goal is to try to win this race, but that’s not realistic this year. I’ve done this race 4 times in the past: I was 2nd overall in 2012, I got my first duathlon win in 2013, I got another win in 2015 (when I should have been 2nd but the leader took a wrong turn), and I won it for the 3rd time in 2017. Last year, a guy named Rob came out of T2 JUST on my tail (only about 5 seconds behind me), and then I out-ran him to take the win by 73 seconds. That’s kinda close, but not really close.

Well, this year, I saw Rob at last weekend’s duathlon: I finished 15th, and Rob finished 5 MINUTES in front of me in 5th overall. If he shows up to Cinco this weekend, I’m going down. And there are dozens of other people that could show up to take me down as well. I really hope I can hold on to top 3 - that’d still be lots of fun! I don’t see a scenario where I come off the bike in the lead, so the goal is to not bleed too much time on the bike.

Welp, time to to just lay it all on the line this weekend! Wish me luck!!