Right, let’s talk about race day disasters, shall we?
I was watching a mini-marathon the other week, and honestly, sometimes I absolutely despair at what I see. There they were – kids on the start line of both the under-15 and under-17 races – frantically fiddling with their watches, desperately trying to press that start button as the gun goes off…..it’s enough of a scramble as it is, and unsurprisingly a few hit the deck. What on earth were they thinking???
For goodness sake, it’s chip-timed!
You’ve got one of the best timing systems in the world right there. You’re going to get your accurate time regardless. Yet there they are, faffing about on the start line like they’re defusing a bomb.
And it’s not just the youth – I’ve seen adults doing exactly the same thing in 800m and1500m track races!
Look, if you want/need that data to analyse your physiological responses afterwards, start your watch 2, 3, or 5 minutes beforehand. Record your warm-up. You’ll see yourself standing still on the start line, then suddenly – boom – an increase in speed. That’s where your race started. Pure common sense, really.
You can’t teach people common sense, but you can help educate them.
Things of course might be different in a longer event, where you need your watch to help with pacing, but that’s another story, the short stuff should just be about running hard and not needing to look at your wrist!
Whilst we are on race days, here’s my take on….
The Three Biggest Race Day Mistakes
Whether you’re doing a triathlon, a shorter distance run, or one of the bigger cycling events still coming up this summer, these are the three mistakes that will absolutely ruin your performance:
- Cramming like it’s an exam: Sticking in a whole load of training in the final two or three weeks before your event. The work needs to be done far enough in advance. You want to go into that event rested and recovered, not knackered from overdoing it at the last minute.
- Trying something new on race day: New nutrition strategy, new shoes, new shorts- it’s almost a recipe for disaster. The last thing you want whilst running a long distance is bleeding nipples, or discovering mid-ride that your new cycling shoes are rubbing your feet raw. Test everything in training first, and not just once!
- Getting caught up in the adrenaline: Don’t sprint off like you’re trying to get on television in the first 400 metres. Whether you’re doing a 1500m on the track or a major sportive, if your pacing strategy is wrong for what you’ve trained for, it’s going to be a horrible day.
With a bit of thought we can help you make sure you don’t undo all the great work you have put into training before you have even started!
The Power of Planning (And a Colour Blind Professor)
This reminds me of one of my research professors back in Cape Town – an absolutely brilliant medical doctor and exercise physiologist, but massively colour blind. After a few conferences in the States, we’d have a right laugh about his outfit combinations. Word must have got back to his wife because she started packing complete sets of clothes together in clear plastic bags for him – socks, trousers, shirt, tie – all coordinated for his important presentations.
It was still amusing to see what he wore out of an evening, but that planning meant he looked professional when it mattered. We’d sometimes swap his socks when he wasn’t looking, but the point stands – having that planning and support network makes all the difference when things aren’t working the way you need them to.
Do you want to risk planning and support to go it alone on the start line of your event?
Results Don’t Lie
Speaking of planning paying off, I had Nathan “The Hitman” Heaney in the lab on Friday last week – for those of your that don’t know Nathan, he’s a pro boxer (a former British Champion) I’d seen six weeks earlier. We’d given him specific training zones and a metabolic intervention, and the results were brilliant: he’d dropped 2.6kg of body fat whilst gaining 0.6kg of muscle mass.
The key? He’d always thought his Zone 2 steady endurance work should be 10-25 beats higher than we’d determined. By backing him down to the correct zones, that’s where we saw the gains.
Have a quick watch on what Nathan said about the work we had done together:
Similarly, I was visited by young runner who came in five months on from her last test, her VO2max had jumped from 56ml to 65ml through sensible endurance training. Run speed at steady pace up by 1.5km/h, threshold speed up by 1km/h, and we could shift her endurance zones up by eight beats per minute.
All a result of hitting bespoke planning and using correct training zones! (Assessed not guessed).
The Bottom Line
It’s all about getting those assessments right, getting the zones right, and having a proper plan. Whether it’s knowing your correct training zones, testing your race day nutrition in advance, or simply starting your watch during your warm-up instead of fumbling with it on the start line – the details matter.
Don’t let poor planning turn your months of hard work into a disaster. Get the basics right, and everything else falls into place.