Posted: February 17, 2005

Triathlon: Planning for success

By Lance Watson LifeSport.ca.

As the Northern Hemisphere season is rolling around and the race dates are finalized, now is a good time to sit down and try to make sense of your ambitions this season. How am I going to fit in all those races? Which ones should I skip, and which ones are beneficial? How can I avoid feeling fried by July?

Here are a few tips:

Step 1: What are your most important races? You need to ask yourself, "Which races are my athletic-goal races this year? Where do I want to excel?" If you are a long-course athlete, it will likely be an Ironman or a key half-Ironman. If you are a short-course athlete, it might be your regional championships, your national-team qualifier or the world championships.

Sometimes you have to make some tough choices. For instance, what if you're doing Ironman along with some short-course events and the short-course regional qualifier is a week before Ironman ... or two weeks after? In these instances, you need to ask yourself which event is closest to your heart ... which race is more important?

If your biggest race is a short-course event two weeks after a long-course race, and you really want to perform there, it's likely you will not be able to do the long event. If the short race is before an Ironman, and it is important to you, you may have to sacrifice some base miles for some speed work. In other words, you will prioritize training for the short-course race and "participate" in the long course event.

If it is the long-course race you are gunning for, then you may have to accept that you'll race the short course tired or without proper speed training. Maybe you'll have to skip it to taper for Ironman or to avoid risking injury by racing fast after the arduous long course event.

Step 2 : Where have you had success before? By determining which races you have done well at previously, you can identify valuable racing information and knowledge about yourself as an athlete.

First, you can determine what distances and terrain suit you best. This can provide input into determining which races you should prioritize. For instance, if you excel at hilly, non-drafting, half-Ironman events like Wildflower and tend to do well on the bike, should you be setting your main goal race to be a flat, draft-legal race? Or, if you are a good swimmer, weak cyclist, average runner, should your priority races be Ironman, or would Olympic distance make more sense with a relatively longer swim?

Secondly, you can look back at what you did leading up to those successful races. Was it your third weekend racing in a row? Did you have an "A+" three weeks of uninterrupted training leading into it with no races? If you decide that the national championships is your most important race, then you should choose a training and racing regime that emulates what has brought you success in the past.

Some athletes race better their second week in a row. Some athletes race better less frequently. Some athletes thrive physically and mentally on the competition provided by a busy schedule.

Thirdly, often when we revisit a race where we have had success, it is easier to have success there again. Mentally, you have done it before, so it is not a great leap. This can be good for your confidence building toward another important race.

Step 3: What are your favorite races? Think through the schedule and the races that really appeal to you. Maybe it is the adventure component or because it is a fast course. Perhaps it has a great barbeque party afterward or a scenic course.

Whatever floats your boat, be sure to fit in a few favorites. They fuel your soul and remind you of why you participate in our great sport. If they are less important performance-wise, keep up your training load through them, and use them as sharp training sessions rather than as a peak-performance measure.

Step 4: Plan for training, plan for rest. After a period of early-season miles and your first block of racing, make sure you plan to take three weeks to get back to some structured training away from the race course. As well, plan some short, active rest at some point during your mid-season. Sometimes four to five days of unstructured, aerobic-oriented training is all it takes to recharge the batteries

Over the past 17 years LifeSport president Lance Watson has coached a number of Ironman, Olympic and age-group champions. He enjoys coaching athletes of all abilities who are passionate about sport and personal excellence. For more on Watson, or to check out his coaching packages, visit LifeSport.ca.

Posted with permission from WatsonLifeSport.com.

© Copyright 2004 Lance Watson Professional Coaching Inc.