Race Week

You’ve spent months working for this race. The training has been great. Taper has gone well. You’re feeling like you’re ready to go. Please don’t let the few days before your race ruin everything.

What Am I Talking About?

• Spending hours at the expo, buying all of the merchandise, standing around and doing lots of walking.

• Watching other triathletes do lots of sessions prior to the race and then trying to mimic them.

• Not eating and drinking enough in the days leading into the race.

• Filling up your free time with lots of work stuff.

• The stress of not knowing what you’re doing, when you should be doing it.

• Trying all of the free stuff at the expo – or picking up new nutrition or energy drink because they have a big crowd gathered around!

What Would I Advise?

Planning

Have a plan. Know what day you’re going to register for the race. Know when you need to rack your bike and hand in your transition bags. Don’t leave it to chance. You don’t want to leave it until the last minute and find yourself stressed because you’re rushing around.

Checklist

Linked to planning, but have a checklist for the various things you have to do. It will keep you on track.

A checklist for what race kit is going into the various transition bags for example, will save you packing, re-packing and then packing them again, ‘just to make sure’.

Your race morning checklist will help you make sure you pack everything and do all of the necessary admin. The amount of athletes who leave their drinks bottles in the fridge on race morning is amazing.

Limit Standing & Walking

Try and limit your time at the expo. Go around once. Buy your stuff. And then go. And, particularly for races abroad, the day before the race is not a time for sight-seeing.

Don’t Copy Other Athletes

When you go abroad for a race, you see this all of the time. Lots of athletes building their bikes and going out for long rides because the weather is great, you’re feeling great, and you see others doing it so you think you should. And then coming back and running long intervals at 3 hour marathon pace – like everybody else! Instead have confidence in your preparation and your plan.

Do your short sessions that you have planned, and then rest.

Minimise Stress

It’s not easy, but try and switch off from the stresses of life. You’ve spent months and months working for this. This is your moment. That work email can usually wait until the Monday after the race.

It’s easy to see how it can go wrong, isn’t it? Lack of thought or planning or just being a bit absentminded is easily done, but can have big consequences. Think about these few days and plan them out properly – it makes life so much easier!