Athlete Race Recap: Tour de Bristol, Gettysburg Blue-Gray Half Marathon, & Ron Jon Cocoa Beach Triathlon

Three races, three athletes, and three different sports!  What a weekend!

• Tour de Bristol - Bristol, United Kingdom
• Gettysburg Blue-Gray Half Marathon - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
• Ron Jon Cocoa Beach Triathlon - Cocoa Beach, Florida

Tour de Bristol - Bristol, United Kingdom

Rachel Andrew took to the hills for the Tour de Bristol on Saturday, April 9, 2022!

She decided to do the 100-kilometer route (62 miles), which had over 3,500 feet of total elevation gain!  I can always count on Rachel for an entertaining post-event report, and she did not disappoint on Saturday.  She regaled me with stories of hissing geese, baby lambs, and forgetting how to ride a bicycle.  Overall, it was a fun event that was well-supported by the event marshalls and staff.  I wish I could have gone over to the UK for this!

Rachel has been doing some virtual racing on Zwift over the Winter, and the time she’s spent on the bike is paying off.  Well done, Rachel!

Gettysburg Blue-Gray Half Marathon - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

On Sunday, April 10, 2022, Sarah Heintzelman ran the Blue-Gray Half Marathon in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

I’ve been writing Custom-Built Training Plans for Sarah for over 15 months now. Sarah set goals to achieve a personal best time in a few different distances of running events, so over the last couple of training cycles, we’ve been focusing on time-based training.

Setting results-based goals (i.e. achieving a specific time or pace in a race) is a tougher goal than it appears at face value.  If an athlete is serious about wanting to achieve a time-based result, they will have to go outside of their comfort zone to achieve it.

“Outside of the comfort zone” may look different for each athlete, since each athlete is going to have different things that they are comfortable (and uncomfortable) with.  However, across the board, if an athlete wants a time-based result, it is going to mean that they need to do specific work in their training often.  Time-based results do not just appear out of thin air; that specific work consistently over time is what makes results happen.  As a result, there is more “pressure” in training since there is always a specific outcome that is being sought.  Truly, training for time-based results can be very stressful!

Sarah has truly embraced becoming comfortable with uncomfortable.  She has pushed herself in pace-based workouts that I’ve written for her for several months now, and this past weekend, she saw the fruits of her labors in a tangible race result when she achieved a personal best time at the half marathon distance!  She improved her half marathon time by FOUR minutes and TWENTY-FIVE seconds!

Congratulations, Sarah!

Ron Jon Cocoa Beach Triathlon - Cocoa Beach, Florida

Deb Chucoski and her guide Ericka Hachmeister raced at the Ron Jon Cocoa Beach Triathlon in Cocoa Beach, Florida on Sunday, April 10, 2022!

The Ron Jon Cocoa Beach Triathlon is the first race in this year’s USA Paratriathlon Development Race Series. These events are wonderful opportunities for athletes to try paratriathlon for the first time, but also provide great opportunities for athletes like Deb who are seeking to gain more experience racing paratriathlons.

Deb has been working HARD in training. You may remember that she and Ericka placed second at the 2022 Americas Triathlon Para Championships Sarasota-Bradenton just four weeks ago. This was a great result that we were so happy with (especially since it was Deb’s first “big” paratriathlon race), but we also learned a lot about what we could do to help Deb be even faster in her other races this year.

At the Ron Jon Cocoa Beach Triathlon, Deb and Ericka improved their times in the swim, bike, AND run.  Yep, that’s right!  They were faster in ALL THREE triathlon disciplines just four weeks after a big race!

As the cherry on top of this Sunday (intentional spelling there ;) ), this result was enough to earn Deb and Ericka the top podium spot for the Female PTVI (visually impaired) classification at the Ron Jon Cocoa Beach Triathlon!  FIRST PLACE!

WAY TO GO, Deb and Ericka!