Tips on how to plan your race season
It’s that time of year to start thinking about what events or races you’re going to target the following season. This can often be a time of uncertainty and confusion for a lot of athletes as they aren’t 100% sure what a season should look like. Taking the time to think through your goals and objectives for next year in a logical way is always the best approach. This avoids making too many decisions that are based on emotions, which athletes can often regret. A great rule is to never enter another race or make big decisions in the 48 hours after a race as you’ll often make the wrong one. The purpose this article is cover how you should construct a season and what factors you should consider when deciding what events to enter.
How many races should you enter?
This obviously depends on what type of distance you’re racing and what your chosen sport is. However, we can look at the principle of peaking when deciding how many events to race. Most of you will have heard of the notion of A, B and C races, A being the most important and C being the least. This is a great way on deciding what are you going to place the most focus on and what are you going to peak for. Most athletes will struggle to hit their physical and mental peak more than a few times in a season as each peak will require a long build and then a period of downtime afterwards to recover. In running and triathlon, that may look like 3 or 4 big events or races in the year that you want to produce your best performance at. In cycling, you may be aiming for 3 or 4 big events or a few blocks of time that you want to be in very good from for. Such as a 2-3 week window which has may include a stage race or series of races. This gives us a good base point to start with. Most athletes will benefit from constructing a season that’s built around 2 or 3 main events, that are equally spaced out to ensure peak form at each. So, that might consist of 3 main events spaced out over 3 month blocks.
From there, you need to make a decision on if you are going to use supplementary races as preparation to the build-up to these A races. These then fall under the category of B and C races. While you may not be at peak condition for these events, for many, racing is the best training and is a great way of getting ready for the key day. The caveat to this is that these races can play on athlete’s psychology. While many say they’re just doing the race as preparation, they’re secretly hoping it goes very well and place unfair scrutiny on it when it they don’t have an amazing race. This can also then knock an athlete’s confidence and cause motivation to waiver. So, consider these factors when you’re thinking about what you’re trying to achieve with the lower importance events.
While racing is great training, there’s added pressure and demands placed on an athlete in comparison to training. It’s not so much the event itself, it’s the time around the event. Travelling to a race, tapering for it and then travelling back places its own pressures on you. If you have to travel a long way to a lower importance race, you’re going to cause quite a lot of fatigue from this and you’re also going to have to take some time off, unless you’re travelling the day before or coming straight back after. Which also compromises recovery. Think very carefully about racing too much away from home if you live a normal working life, as many athletes can find this doesn’t help them towards the bigger goals. You’re better racing closer to home, and if there’s not that many races, that should help construct your season. The takeaway is that travel can be a massive stress and a lot simply can’t cope with it, in conjunction with racing.
people often overestimate what they can achieve in the short term and underestimate what they can achieve in the long term.
What factors should you consider when picking races?
There’s a couple of ways to answer this question and it depends on what type of athlete you are. If you’re the type of athlete who wants to use racing to see the world and experience different places or challenges, be diverse and seek out the ones that inspire you. This will keep your motivation high and fit your rationale for doing the sport in the first place. However, we’ve all done races that we’ve wanted to do because of their location etc but then found that we weren’t that well suited to the course or conditions. If your goal is achieving the best performance, you should potentially look at course/locations that suit your skill set. Then consider all the factors that will underpin performing well in that race: terrain, temperature, logistics, altitude, competition and timing. If one of these factors is going to be a limiting factor to your performance, and you can’t prepare for that in training (or aren’t willing to), then look at another option.
Temperature:
Conditions have a massive impact on performance. If you are going to a hotter climate, it is impossible to perform at your optimum without doing adequate heat preparation. Getting there a week early won’t make any difference to getting you ready. If you’re prepared to follow a heat adaptation protocol in your training plan, then entering races in warmer climates may be ok for you. But if you think this is going to be a challenge and you’re worried about it, don’t enter a race where the conditions are going to impair your performance more than they will for someone else. Athletes who live in hotter climates will have a clear advantage over you, without necessarily being any fitter.
Course Profile:
Consider how well your skills suit a course and what your normal training terrain is like in comparison to where you want to race. For example, if you’re not a great descender on the bike, picking a race that has lots of technical downhill sections will most likely work against you as others will take free time out of you. On the flip side, think about where your strengths lie, if you’re a very strong runner up hills, picking a course that has a hillier run profile may be great for you and not so good for others. The key here is, how specific can you be with your preparation to mimic the demands of the event. Technical skill training has to be integrated into a plan if you’re taking on an event which is outside your comfort zone.
Altitude and Time of Event:
More events are being done at altitude and it’s common for athletes to be taking on such a feat. It’s rare that someone won’t consider this as a limiting factor but it does happen. Not only can racing at altitude be very dangerous if you’re not prepared, it’s pretty much impossible to do well. Planning a proper protocol to get ready for such an event is essential.
Many longer events end up running into the night, or starting very early in the morning. We recently posted an article about the importance of sleep and how damaging a lack of it can be. Performing well during the night takes specific training and isn’t just a case of saying, “I’ll just not sleep that night”. If you’re considering doing an event that goes through the night, take some time to understand how you’ll have to prepare for that.
Logistics:
We’ve touched on it already but travelling is a stress. Many iconic races and destination events look stunning, but they’re often in the middle of nowhere. A lot of us have gone to races where we’ve simply been knackered by the time we got there, due to long plane and bus journeys. This often results in a sub-optimal performance. So, when picking races, look at flights, buses, hotels and anything that could be a potential stress. Making life as easy as possible is key. Staying in a great location with good travel plans takes a bit of extra planning, but if you’re investing that much energy, money and time into a race, why would you not get these details right?
Time around the race:
Consider the importance of the time before the race. If you’ve entered so many races that you can’t take a break from work the week before, you’re setting yourself up for a challenge. It’s always a mad rush getting ready for a race, especially if it’s a big race abroad. The time before a race should be spent getting lots of sleep, eating well, getting lots of recovery around training and planning the small details. This is only possible with time on your hands so consider what’s feasible from a schedule point of view when entering events. This should also apply to the days after a race. Again, travel is a stress. If you’ve gone hard in a race, you need to maximise recovery and travelling makes that difficult to do. Plan some time after a race that enables you to absorb the load and then return to work and training in an optimum state.
Type of race:
If you’re performance orientated, you might have to accept that you can’t do everything and anything. For example, if your goal is to race your best Ironman, well then, you’re not going to at your best for half Ironman. The level of competition in racing across all sports and distances: running, cycling and triathlon is getting better every season. Unless you’re an incredibly talented athlete, you’re going to find it difficult to be at the sharp end in more than one type of race. This is a case of managing expectations, people often overestimate what they can achieve in the short term and underestimate what they can achieve in the long term. Be realistic with how long it will take to prepare for your key event and don’t get caught up with trying to do lots of races that don’t actually help you towards your bigger goal.
Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. It’s a chemical messenger that makes us feel good and goal setting releases it which motivates you take action.
Final Thoughts:
The final part of the puzzle should bring everything together and help you decide on what goals you should pick and help you create a set of long-term goals. Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. It’s a chemical messenger that makes us feel good and goal setting releases it which motivates you take action. There is a downside to this though. The best way to explain it is with an anecdote. Has anyone ever told you about a great restaurant, that you’ve then and gone and read great things about and been really excited to go, only to feel slightly let down by the experience? Well this is because of dopamine. Every time you think about something like that, you release some dopamine, and sometimes the experience doesn’t actually match up the process of getting there. This is a phenomenon in many walks of life, but particularly with sporting events. Many athletes talk about post-race blues, this is because you’ve been building up this massive event for a long time and once it’s gone, that sense of purpose can waiver. Taking some time out for recovery at this point is important, but pre-empting this event and consistently working on a set of goals is a great way to ensure you stay motivated, happy and progressing in the right direction. When planning out the season, considering these natural lows, and how you can overcome then is important. If you just work towards an end goal, you’ll often end up feeling a little bit lost.
Hopefully this gives you some practical advice on how to plan your season and what some of the pitfalls are. If you’re reading this, you’re probably getting ready, or already in the process of getting stuck into some great winter training. While it’s dark and cold outside, this is an exciting time of the year. You can set some great goals and target some exciting races for next season which will help bring clarity to your training over the coming months. The next article will focus on what you should be doing over the winter with regards to training and how you can set yourself up for a great year.