Triathlon Season Planning
A little sugar and spice will make your tri season nice.
It’s that time of the year. Race season is winding down, Ironman is doing a great job of flooding your inbox with “tier one sold out” propaganda and your friends on social media are sharing all the races that they have already signed up for next year, so you’re feeling the heat to get some races “on the calendar.” Here are some tips to help you plan a successful race season.
First, choose one or two A races (most important race) then work around them. Secondly, line up some B races and then finish by peppering the year with fun C races that keep you excited about waking up early for training. I like to think of C races as Carrots (get it ? C races??) that are always right in front of your face taunting you to man up. Ok let’s break this down:
Find YOUR A race
YOUR A race needs to have specific meaning to you. This is an important step in the planning process. Perhaps your local team is doing this as a team race and you want the emotional support and fun training environment, maybe it’s in the town you grew up in, what about a destination you’ve always wanted to go to, is it a bucket list race, is it a race that you want to use as a qualifier for World Championships or Age Group Nationals? However you begin to choose your A races first start by asking yourself WHY? This answer will be the angel on your shoulder when the tough gets tougher. Your why is the most important question to answer; it’s your meaning to it all. Put the A race(s) on the calendar first, then fill in the B races. I suggest doing one of two options: Split your year into two parts, putting an A race in each or go a little crazy and pack them tight. (Or have just one A race!).
Year Spilt: After A race number one take a good solid week off of triathlon, especially if it’s a full Ironman distance. Treat each six months as an entirely new year, meaning plan B/C races to help you towards that one A race, plan for seasonal weather and how that affects your training and mood.
A Little Crazy: Pack’em tight. 6-8 week turn around between A races. This schedule is good for seasoned athletes that want to carry A race fitness into a even more important A race, such as a qualifier. Athletes that live in areas where weather does not permit outdoor year around training or limits winter and summer training can utilize this packed race schedule for optimizing their season and performance.
Don’t start “training” for an A race until 10-12 weeks out.
By “training” I mean mentally and specifically for that race. You’ll be training otherwise, but for other events and for building speed, endurance and strength not necessarily for the A race. Giving yourself 10-12 weeks to get in the zone of A race specific mode will help to keep you hungry for the work that you’ll be putting in, each session will have more meaning and more focus. In 17 years of racing and coaching I’ve experienced burnout and have seen it in competitors and athletes. This “race specific block” allows you to get serious to devote more time and energy to training. Because it’s in a tight time frame, you’re able to keep your eyes on the prize each day giving your all each session. As a bonus, your support group can typically get on board with this time frame. I suggest you look at your life calendar to see when you have 10-12 weeks to devote to training without much outside disruption, such as family vacations, holidays, big work projects and other family/social obligations. In the past I’ve enjoyed planning an A race that I knew would coincide with the beginning of a vacation, or I’ve planned the vacations around them that way. This has given me a mental and physical break to look forward to post race.
Mindfully choose B races
Before you just go adding B races to the schedule so you can feel like the cool kid in class... think WHY? Why do I want to do this race? If you can answer yes to these questions then go for it:
Will this race prepare me mentally for my A race that follows it?
Does this B race help prepare me physically for my A race?
Will this B race keep my motivation high for training?
So you’ve answered Yes to the above… now where do they fit into the calendar? Most athletes that have a few seasons of racing under their belt can plan to do a B race 4-6 weeks out from their A race. This B race should be half the distance of the A race or less and if possible on similar terrain with similar weather. You can use this B race as a dress rehearsal for the big show. If this is your first or second season think about taking that time frame back to 10-12 weeks out from your A race and treat it as a launch into your race training block. This B race can give you some data that you can use to set your training perimeters for your A race.
Add in a few C races that are less stressful in nature
“C” / Carrot races should be scheduled around your B races with a few considerations in mind:
1. What is their purpose?
2. Can you train through them?
3. How much life stress will it add?
Ask yourself - why do you want to do this race? (1) Is it because it’s local and cheap and you can whoop some ass? Ok great! These C races you are going to train straight through, no big taper, maybe a day or two depending on how much ass you want to whoop or if you’re using them as a field test for fitness. (2) Does it add very little life stress? And (3) is travel minimal, cost low and value high? Awesome! Go for it.
2019 is right around the corner, and we’re loving the varying plans we’re seeing athletes put together. As you think about your goals and race dreams, this is a good time to consider adding a coach to help you bring all the pieces together. The Race Relentless squad will have a few openings for athletes of ALL levels for 2019, and our roster is open NOW for those conversations. Hit us up in the contact us section of the website so we can chat soon.