Long or Short...gearing up for Age Group Worlds

Triathlon Forum
1

Okay - I’m looking for some opinions from the masses on my last tune-up race before the olympic distance Age Group Worlds on Sept. 12. Sorry for the self-centered post.

A little background…I’m 24 in my 2nd full season racing and was fortunate enough to qualify for Age Group Worlds last year. To make a long story short, I had an injury that kept me from racing too much this entire season but I’m finally rounding into good shape and am 100% healthy.

I want to get in one last tune-up race in before I leave for Australia. Due to scheduling, it looks like the only race that will fit is Santa Barbara. My question is whether I should do Santa Barbara long (1mi/34mi/10mi) or sprint (500yd/6mi/2mi).

In your opinion, would I benefit more from the longer race or the shorter race in preparing for an olympic distance race? Would there potentially be issues recovering from Aug. 21 to Sept. 12 if I did the long?

I know this is all relative based on my fitness, etc. but in general what would you recommend? Hopefully some of you coaches can chime in.

Thanks in advance for helping a relative newb. Hopefully next year I can afford a coach! :slight_smile:

Drew

2

If it were me, I would opt for the short. You should be able to recover in time for worlds if you do the long, but it will take you longer to recover than the short race, which will impact your ability to get back to the peaking workouts you will want to be doing for worlds.

3

I thought about that too. My only “concern” is that the sprint is SUPER short…I’m sort of wondering if I’d be better off doing a couple longer speed workouts then racing in this case.

4

C) Do the long on saturday and the sprint on sunday
.

5

Can’t believe I didn’t think of that…haha
.

6

What exactly are you ‘tuning up’?

7

Haven’t raced a lot this year due to the injury…would like to get in a last race to get my body used to racing again (i.e. tuned up). Unfortunately, I don’t have an olympic distance I can do between now and then.

So longer and slower, or shorter and faster. Which one would be better. That’s what I’m pondering.