Do you truly race?

[Jack Hughes]

It's a tricky one. I tend to go all out, leave nothing behind etc. etc.

_but_

1) My best road running race was when I took it as a practice, and ran negative splits. The event was very hilly, so no chance of a PB. I had just blown up at the 8km on the previous 10K, losing a minute - and dropping from sub 40m pace. So was interested in not repeating that. Because it was hilly, I did the negative splits on HR, rather than pace. I ended up much further up the field, beating the guys that had gone sub 40 mins in the previous race.

2) In the MTB Duathlon, because of the conditions, my crap bike, not being very good at MTBm and the fact that the last 5K was essentially flat or downhill, meant that I hadn't really done much more than "tour" round - rather than race. Just couldn't technically go fast enough. So I had loads left on the final run leg. My time was in the top 25% of the second leg times, and I managed to overtake about 15 people. I took about 5-10 mins out of the people that were with me on the Bike. Now, if the run had been a bit longer... I'm not sure if it was a good strategy, but it felt good at the time!

Anyway, negative splits are the way to do well at races. And this means holding something back. I just don't know how that translates to a multisport event. I suspect it means that you have to negative split each leg. But you wouldn't want to sacrifice your best leg (say the Bike).. to make your, say, crap run slightly less crap. It's also tricky because Tri courses are so different - so it is hard to make comparisons - you need to compare positions with your peers I guess.

Anyway, if I can get a few races in this year, it is something that I will investigate.

[Tritans]

Jack, please stop posting such good, common sense posts.

It makes me even more annoyed with myself for my lack of self control. Still maybe this year.