bespoke wrote:
I am self coached and like racing Halfs as a tune up for an A race IM
I figure the British winters are so bad, and our summers are so short, that you might as well do as many events as you can
I know some coaches think thats a bad idea, as a Half will get in the way of a big block
But my view is that as long as you train through the week as normal and maybe take Sat off then a hard Sunday of 4.5-5hrs effort must do some good. 350 TSS is a good day out....
Thoughts?
I seem to race more than most, I guess because I love it, open water races, road runs, tris and I'll often do a training session on the Saturday before an OD or sprint which is on the Sunday, even though it probably hinders my performance a bit I don't want to miss the training and I want to race. I just find the more you race, the better you get and the smarter you race. I think to some extent there isn't enough flexibility in people's thinking regarding triathlon and training. They're too rigid. You must do a taper, you can't run long the week before a race, you can't do this, can't do that etc etc I do a 1km open water race the day before my A race of the year - Busso 70.3 and people think I'm stupid for doing that, but it has never impeded my performance on race day and sets me up for the race day swim.
If I was in your boat and had a short summer, I'd definitely be racing halfs and if it wasn't an important race or had an expensive entry fee, I'd probably train the day before. Recovery wise, I trained the tuesday after Busselton 70.3 which was on the Sunday and did feel a bit sluggish all week, compounded by the alcohol, no doubt, but if I wanted to stick to a normal 12 - 14 training week I could have done. So I can't see a problem with it, probably not what a lot of triathletes would do and probably not what a lot of coaches would advise, but it's probably what I would do.