As I am making my final preparations for my move to Portland, which not only includes preparing to start a new practice in a new town, but also involves preparing for my wife to deliver our first child, I took the opportunity to train with my LA training buddies as much as I could. This week was the last of a pretty hard three-week training block and my legs started to feel it mid-week. Unfortunately, I still needed to get in my last long ride before the Portland triathlon, so I knew Saturday would hurt.

As part of my last couple weeks of training before the Portland Triathlon and my training buddies final prep for the Santa Barbara Triathlon, we did a little “edging” this weekend. I had never really heard the term edging until this weekend, but it seemed to make sense to me. In a nutshell, it’s the type of training an athlete would do prior to an event that they would like to do well in, but is not their peak event. What it entails are shorter, harder efforts that focus on things like strength and leg speed. For instance, on Saturday, instead of our normal long ride, we went a bit shorter, but included a 45-minute time trial and some shorter pick-ups where we focused on a faster cadence. This can also be done while running by doing a tempo run followed by some shorter periods of high leg turnover. The tempo portion can help with strength and endurance, and the quick leg turnover can help recruit some fast-twitch fibers to allow for more leg speed on race day.

So, for the next two weeks, I’ll try to focus on some quicker leg turnover for what promises to be a fast race in Portland on September 2 nd.