A Race

A bit of a hump day post today. Sort of struggling to think, a very Wednesday problem to have.

So far this week has been a pretty okay week. A nice bit of coaching yesterday, some great training in the last three days, I am tired, but in that "have trained well and earned it" sort of way. All very satisfying. Hopefully the rest of the week can continue in the same vein.

I don't have much more on the coaching side of things for the rest of the week, not until I catch up with some athletes on Friday and Saturday and I write some programs on the weekend. Well okay, I guess I have a bit of stuff on the coaching side, but no actual sessions.

On the training and racing side of things I have a bit more action. I am doing a paddle race tomorrow, so that should be fun. Looking like a good afternoon for it. I have a very similar race last Thursday and I really treated it as a training event, which meant no taper or anything. In fact last Thursday I trained in the morning before racing in the afternoon and I think I might take a similar approach tomorrow, although I am pretty fatigued at the moment, so perhaps I won't. Not sure yet.

The reason I am considering training and racing is because the race tomorrow night really is a B race. A coach I used to have once said to me that you can plan a calendar properly and have several B races and a few A races, or you can plan it poorly, make everything an A race and end up with a whole bunch of B races as a result.

His point was that it is human nature to overload a race calendar trying to cram everything in. Often we like to try and do it all when it comes to racing and when we race we want to do it well. But the reality is that that body can only do so much. If you try and race flat out too often, too close together, it is going to take its toll and you will end up racing mediocre most of the time. In addition to this, the constant cycle of race, recover, taper, race with no real quality training in between can actually mean you get slower as the season progresses. That isn't really the point.

My old coaches preference was to identify the races that really mattered and focus on them properly. Train to the race, taper etc, get good quality training and recovery in between. Every race that isn't an A race was a B race. They could provide good practise, but you didn't prepare for them in the same way and your expectation would be tempered appropriately. It might mean training through the event, or doing it with a short taper, or at a lower intensity. You wouldn't do as well, but the event didn't interrupt your preparation as much either. By the time you got to your A race you were fitter, stronger, more rested and generally better prepared.

For me my A race is next week and so this week is still all about the training. The race tomorrow should be fun and is another great opportunity to learn and improve, but the result is really of no consequence, I could come first, middle or last and it wouldn't really matter. I will do the race for the benefits it will bring, but the focus is firmly fixed on the event next week. That is the event that matters.