This weekend just gone saw the first race of the year for me. In reality it was less of a race and more of a high end workout. There had been no taper, no peak. In fact, I’m still well and truly in the ‘base training’ phase of my year… a couple of months away still from race season proper. But racing now still has its place.
I’ve had to learn that racing doesn’t have to mean performing at your absolute best every time. Entering a race can serve several purposes, and each race should have a clear place in your goal setting for the season. I typically count races on a three-tier system:
A races - the one or two (or maybe even three) races in the year that I want to perform my best in. Around these I base my year’s training, building and peaking for each A race in order to ensure that I get to the start line as well prepared and rested as I can be in order to have a blinder. This might be your focus marathon for the year or your key summer triathlon.
B races- these are also key races, but not worth an extended taper. They may be shorter races that don’t require so much recovery time, can be races used to finish a build period and help peak for an upcoming A race. B races occur slightly out of schedule – often in the build phase or at the end of an early season ‘mini-peak’.
C races - these are little more than intense training sessions. These are to help you get used to a routine for race day, to practice racing techniques and using race kit, and can be used for benchmarking. These are typically shorter races, for which you have little or no taper. These should be fun, low-pressure and the result is not particularly important to you. This might be a monthly club race like the Serpie last Friday of the month 5km, local handicap or club sprint distance tri etc.
For me, the race last weekend (Portarlington sprint tri with 800m open water swim, 26km bike and 8km run) – and another coming up this weekend – are good chances to practice triathlon transitions, get my race kit in good order, and get some higher intensity training done. The weekly volume doesn’t change much for me for these races, but I move most of the weekend volume to mid week, and make sure I don’t double up on intensity training through the mid-week sessions. These weekend races will hold most of my high end work for the week. These are typical C races.
And how did it go? It was great fun! And it demonstrated that I certainly need the practice – I seem to have forgotten how to get my feet in my bike shoes riding out of T1. And I’ve also become incapable putting on my running shoes in a hurry over the last few months! Let’s hope I can do a bit better next weekend. It was definitely fun though. I was happy with a solid paced 8km, with a comfortable negative split, and generally was pleased with being able to go that bit harder at the end of a tough week.
Getting over the attachment to race results for ‘C’ races and not caring about others’ expectations isn’t all that easy, but the more you do it, the easy it gets. The first crack of the year always reminds me of that!
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About Toby Radcliffe
In case you wondered Toby wrote this post from Australia, where he is currently doing some warm weather training ahead of the 2009 Ironman season. Toby became a professional Ironman Triathlete last year at the age of 30 and in his first season as a professional athlete managed a 6th placed finish in the British Ironman competition and a PB of 9hr:05min:41sec in the Florida Ironman. Not only is he a great athlete and a nice guy but he is also an Environmental Consultant and was heavily involved with the EDF Energy Birmingham Half Marathon ‘Race Against Climate Change’ initiative. Thankfully for us we will be hearing from Toby throughout this season. If you would like to find out more about the man himself please visit: www.tobyradcliffe.com or check out his blog on how to become a sustainable triathlete at: Being A Better Athlete.
Other Recommended Reading
- Ditch Day – What a way to start my blog!
- A Chat with our ‘Ironman’
- Great North Run build up – part two
- Countdown to London – Trust the taper!
- “Big Race” Recovery
About the author
I am a professional long-course triathlete for Team Timex - I've a few years of hard work and fun coming up! Here's to the long-game as I work my way up the professional ranks!
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