Race Training

Well, I’ve signed up for a wacky adventure race for September 24, and will be signing up for the Catalina Triathlon on November 5th.  Just like every year, this means I’m going to have to actually get off my lazy butt and start training.  But how does one train for an urban adventure race?  And how does one do it without getting bogged down in specifics?  I can ride on the bike with the best of them, running is ok, I enjoy swimming but it takes more planning.  But really, 20-30 miles in 4-6 hours, with some implied “rest time” (shopping? trivia? scootering?) – how does someone train for that? I need to make sure my seat doesn’t get sore, that my feet can run a decent amount, and that I can keep going for 4-6 hours with some breaks.  I know how to train for the Sprint Triathlon in Catalina, but 4-6 hours is longer than any sprint tri I’ve ever done, so I need to work on my endurance before the Oyster.  I do need to make sure I get in enough cycling that I can easily cycle 25 miles if it turns out the Oyster is mostly that – and for my own sanity, and that of my teammates, I’d probably better work on getting my average speed up above 10MPH.

But, you know, I get bogged down a lot in specifics when I’m training, and in this case it’s really not necessary.  So, let’s go with a really hand wavy SWAG (silly wild ass guess) at what a training program would look like for the Oyster. This year I’m going to go with the aerobic points system.  where you get differing points for biking, swimming and running.  Let’s assume 20 miles biking and 10 miles running.  Let’s go with the least-aggressive 1.5x/week-at-the-end plan and work up to that (remember that the Oyster will have lots of rest time available)

So, for the Oyster, 1x distance/week is:

20 miles biking: 20 points

10 miles running (or walking): 40 points

And (duh) 1.5x distance a week is 1.5 times that (or 90 points/week)

So for July, 40 points a week is my goal

For August, 60 points a week.

The first 2 weeks of September, I’ll aim for 90 points, then the 3rd week of September I’ll go back to 60 (tapering).  Note that 90 points could look like:

3000 yards swimming (30 points)

30 miles biking (30 points)

7.5 miles running (30 points)

The Catalina Triathlon is effectively 8 points of swimming plus 15 points of biking plus 12 points of running, or a total of 35 points, so I’ll train October at about 60 points/week to be ready for the triathlon.

Now, the tricky part is, as always, to track this stuff.  I’d love there to be an aerobic points iphone app that integrates with RunKeeper, but alas, nobody has written one.  So I’ll track my exercise with RunKeeper, and when I have time to put an application together, I’ll create one to track this stuff for me.  For now I’ll report my numbers to my Fitness circle to have some accountability, and I’m sure my Oyster team members will kick my ass if I don’t do a good job.

Tagged as Fitness, APIs and Geek Stuff here, posted to my Fitness and Friends circles in G+.