Funny to hear people for one reason or another feel the need to clarify as such. Knowing what I got through expense, stress, etc…they are all A races.
If you race enough, if you treat every race like an “A” race then they all end up being “B” races. That’s how it is for me, anyway. A “B” race is one for which I don’t taper or interrupt my training schedule. Typically these are local races. An “A” race means tapering. It might be local, or I might have to travel.
I know what your saying. If you look at a season as a big picture, and that you will peak in the end, the races leading up are still “A”. You just havent peaked yet. I guess if a race is part of the training, thats certainly accpetable/normal, just no need to announce it to everyone before and after the race. (not directed at you)
the races leading up are still “A”. You just havent peaked yet.
Not really. I approach an A race differently from a B race. If I approached every race like an A race, then training would be compromised. I’d be spending all of my time tapering, not training, and the “real” A-race at the end of the season would be compromised.
I still try to go fast in a B race, and sometimes they end up being pretty quick. But I just use them as training sessions. Depending on the race, they are an opportunity to try new things (what happens if I back off on the bike? Will my run be substantially faster??)
I just had my first “B” race of my amateur tri career. The main difference was that I did not completely pour everything into the event, as I knew that the increased intensity would require an extended recovery and a delay in training. I was happy with my performance, but the time goal had to be put off so that I can hit my “A” race in top form, in just 2 weeks.
It would have been nice to PB the distance (although I did PB the course).
There is a difference. B races are basically hard training sessions, since you’re not rested and tapered for them. That doesn’t mean it can’t be strong. I had a B race last weekend, and raced my fastest international Duathlon in 4 years, and had a bike PB. That said, I had stomach issues the whole race and really shut things down the second run, knowing that I had to race a bike race the next day.
The purpose of the double that weekend was to prepare myself for a weekend with 2 A races a month from now with a Hilly Road Race on saturday and a Crit on sunday (provincial champs).
Not every race can be an A race, so pick your key ones, the rest are B races where you focus on certain elements of it, but not the final performance.
I disagree with the sentiment that a couple people expressed that a “B race” is simply a hard training session. A race is a race, however rested/tapered you are, and it will be a different level of effort than I could expect from almost any training session.
For me the main reason to differentiate an “A race” from a “B race” is to help me manage my expectations. So if (when) I get halfway through a “B race” and feel like crap, or don’t have the run split I was expecting, or something like that, I don’t freak out that I have utterly screwed up my training. I chalk it up to fatigue and try not to stress out about it.
A race is a race, however rested/tapered you are, and it will be a different level of effort than I could expect from almost any training session.
Agreed, a race is a race. The point of doing a B race rather than just going for a training ride/run is because you do push harder in a race situation. But the difference is that in an A race, you really care about the final outcome. In a B, your placing / final time does not have the same level of importance. At least for me.
I’m sure its different for you cause you’re good :). But i also don’t agree with the whole B race thing. In season is in season and you race everything hard. Maybe its coming from hockey but i’ve never had a coach go oh well this game is just a b game so don’t try as hard. Pssh.
I take every race as a race where i am trying to go my fastest if i don’t and am a couple mins slower or whatever so what. Figure out what went wrong and move on from there. If i ever start racing with the big boys i’ll start worrying about tapering. Until then i’d rather have fun and race all the time then worry about my run split being 42 instead of 41mins.
Like last week where i raced hy-vee and a sprint the day before. I even told my coach i’m not losing 10-15 mins off my olympic time in the next week so i might as well race both days whats a couple minutes.
You’re good though so i can see the point of two race types 
Grant