Spencer Summerfield – What’s on tap for 2016

With one duathlon already in the books (Iron Hawk) that means the start of the 2016 MultiSport Canada Duathlon/Triathlon Recharge With Milk Series is just weeks away.

Like most competitive athletes I have been working hard since October of last year to prepare for the upcoming season. Hours and hours on the Computrainer working in #TrainerRoad to boost my FTP and muscular endurance.  I set a hefty goal for the bike of 300w FTP and only fell short by  5 watts. (295w  @ 4.68w/kg).  Averaging 6-7 hrs a week of training I stuck to my usual plan of 3 weeks on 1 week off. Some weeks were better than others as high as 9 hrs of training and as low as 2 hrs. Building my endurance has been the hardest part pushing to average a TSS of 450-500 a week it has taken everything to maintain this intensity. Running for me is an ongoing struggle, pushing myself to run faster for longer is no easy chore. Doubling my distance in preparation for the International Duathlon 5K,40K, 10K format has been a grind. My endurance is excellent but to maintain the speed of a sprint race into double the distance has not been fun. This year will clearly be a transitional year because I have only ever raced sprint duathlons, never the international distance. With the upped milage came more stress on the body and more demand for proper fuel / nutrition.  I have managed to work my way up to 2+ hrs of activity solely fueled by liquids. Maintaining proper sodium levels and fluid carbs make the difference between “bonking” around 1hr or not. Once I cross that 1:05:00 mark I can keep pushing now. Pulling double duty working on indoor bricks was very beneficial. For the first time I had both a treadmill and Computrainer at my disposal in the #summerfieldpaincave. Changing my bodies ability to function past the 2/ 2.5hr mark is something that I still a struggle with despite bye best efforts to adapt.  This is something that will only come with time. Cycling is not worry it’s my running, getting faster is so damn hard.  I talked about increasing my training load in a previous post “increasing you training load safely”  and how to find that balance of training and fatigue.  Ironically shorty after posting that in March I began a downward spiral in my training after pushing myself to the edge physically and mentally.

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