You are either training or you are racing.

This is where you are wrong...If you go out with dan or i, you are either in a training race, or you are racing. ANd we have about a 100 course records to prove it, including age and sex graded... We think people that train are pussies. Every day i get in the pool with my group, it is a definate race for me, whether I get a heat ribbon or not...(-;

PS; the hardest part is trying to figure out how to taper for these everyday training races..

LOL...
Every "training" ride i go on with my buddy is a race.

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If I ever make it to the ST "offices" for a "training" session, I'm bringing race wheels and tapering. :-)

An addition to my post... training is defined as "race practice".
So I guess technically every race is training for the next race.
It's the rationalization of going easy because it's a "training race" that gets me.

It's the rationalization of going easy because it's a "training race" that gets me.
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This I can agree with. IF I'm going to a race, I do not train through it. I entered the race for a reason, to race. And in order to race, I cannot have done a hard 4 hour workout the day before. I raced a lot, so i figured out how to do a great mini taper, so as not to lose fitness by doing big tapers every week. I dont really care if folks want to train through races, just do not tell me about it, or mail in your poor performance before the race has even happened. IF you show up and I'm there, you will get my best effort, and any excuses will come after the race, because I won't have a built in one before the race..

Was this a "training post" or is this all you got?

if you live around delaware, i want to train with you. i am the same exact way!

I hate when I go to a race and someone says before the races even starts, "I am just hear for fun. I rode 120 miles yesterday and swam 45,00 yards this week. I am not expecting much today!" And then I jump in and say, "You are pu$$y so stop making excuses before the race even started. I got up this morning at 3:30 and came hear to race and all I can hear is your sorry sack of $hit complaining already. Shut the F up. If you are not going race hard, leave. I only want to beat people that I worked harder then. You OBVIOUSLY worked harder then me this week so shut up and win. I hate racing against some who doesn't care. SHUT UP AND RACE because you paid $200 dollars or even more to be hear on your $10,000. bike!"

I am done ranting. Blood pressure is back up!

I'm just responding to your post just for fun. I responded to a post earlier today and have answered twelve posts this week so I'm not expecting much from this reply.

I don't think this is really to you point, as I plan to go as hard as I can for every race I will race this year.

However, to me my only races are my "A" races. I will race 2-3 small races for every A race I do, but they are just training days. I'm still going as hard as I can and gunning for the podium if it's within reach. Still, the purpose of these races is not to win or even to do well. They're there to practice transitioning, rediscover my physical and mental limits, test out changes in my nutrition protocol during racing intensities, etc. Most importantly, they give me a good gauge of my fitness and help me figure out where the gaps are. If I have a workout to do the next day, it is NOT a race; it's training.

For it to be a true race and not a "training race," I need to have a considerable amount vested in the outcome of the race. I'm training for 2 Ironmans in 2011. What f*cking difference does it make if I'm marginally faster over the Sprint distance? "Training races," while still all-out affairs, are just workouts. My year does not live or die by results attained during "B" races.

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2014: 40k TT focus

Race reports at http://tripikapp.blogspot.com

Agreed - All out - All the time.

I think you got it.

The whole "A", "B" race terminology makes me cringe... it's so.... FRIEL....

I'm sorry but my world has shades of grey between the two and you must accept this before we can have beers together.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

yes, you are only allowed to actually SAY that, IF you win.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I'll allow that. :-)

I enter lots of races with zero intention of racing them....or just for fun. They can be very social....look at it this way, when a bunch of lululemon girls ask you to run a 10k with them, you don't turn them down.

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That's only acceptable if you hooked up with one of them after the race.

Not how I look at it at all... Has nothing to do with not going hard or not trying to do well effort-wise, it's more about practicing live transitions, maybe experimenting with some equipment choices or nutrition that you don't want to gamble a $500 entry (and perhaps even more on travel) and months of training on. Hard to simulate some things during normal everyday conditions w/o traffic/crowd control, other racers, etc. It's just a lower-budget/lower-risk dress rehearsal; if something's wrong with my prep/gear/whatever then it's a good opportunity to find out what needs fixing for a race in which I have a greater investment (both $$ and time/travel).

I think this is the attitude that causes people to avoid doing things like running a marathon as part of an IM preparation. I did two marathons this year in such a manner. I definitely could have run faster in either of them but chose not to do so in order to avoid the recovery that would have required. The IM was my only A race for the year and it didn't make sense to compromise that race for a medium fast marathon that would cause a recovery that didn't fit in the training program. Certainly I could have gotten the same training effect by running on my own and doing a similar workout without participating in the race. It just wouldn't have been as much fun.

I would say that every race that I did was preparation for the IM. The marathons were the only ones that were not all out. I'd do the same thing if I choose to do another IM in the future.

I do a few training races every year. They're useful.

 hate when I go to a race and someone says before the races even starts, "I am just hear for fun. I rode 120 miles yesterday and swam 45,00 yards this week. I am not expecting much today!" And then I jump in and say, "You are pu$$y so stop making excuses before the race even started. I got up this morning at 3:30 and came hear to race and all I can hear is your sorry sack of $hit complaining already. Shut the F up. If you are not going race hard, leave. I only want to beat people that I worked harder then. You OBVIOUSLY worked harder then me this week so shut up and win. I hate racing against some who doesn't care. SHUT UP AND RACE because you paid $200 dollars or even more to be hear on your $10,000. bike!"

I am done ranting. Blood pressure is back up!

You need to worry less about what other people are doing.

I agree. I have never liked this nor agreed with it. When you toe the line in a race, you go as hard as you can on that day and try and extract as much performance out of your self as you can on that day. Yes there is and should be A, B and C or whatever races, but you still go as hard as you can on that day for that event.

Many triathletes focusing on longer distance races do themselves a massive disservice and miss-out ion outstanding training opportunities by doing these rather silly, "Training races" or paced races. There is much to be learned and extracted from going as hard as you can on that day.

When I was racing seriously, I always had at least one race each month of the year, where I had a really honest go at it, regardless of the distance, and regardless of the event - running race, bike TT, triathlon, Nordic ski race etc . . .

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I like how Pfiztinger calls them "tune up races."

To the OP: if you're racing and they're in a "training race," you should be beating them anyway. Why worry about those behind you :-)

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