It Is Easy To Get Fit

It is easy to get an athlete fit… well, if you know what you are doing anyway! But fitness will seldom be the limiter for race day performance.

Cardiovascular fitness can be built over a matter of weeks and is compounded over months and years. Heading into a race, long course in particular, we rarely have concern for ones cardiovascular fitness.

There are many other factors that will determine race day performance.

In the lead up they include:

– Strength maintenance… both sport specific and otherwise
– Body management
– Refinement of goals and expectations for the race, ie. Prepare for where you ARE, not where you WANT to be, SHOULD be or COULD be
– Equipment choices
– Refinement of hydration and fueling strategies
– Development of athletic intelligence
– Trust and patience which leads to appropriate execution of training sessions
– Mindset, including confidence
– Freshness… arriving to race day both FIT and ready to race… physically, mentally and emotionally!

Come race day:
– Removal of expectations on performance… you are owed nothing – you have to earn the result
– Execution of appropriate pacing… being patient early and holding on late
– Fueling and hydration (CRITICAL)
– Mindset: acceptance and optimization, regardless of how things are going
– Willingness to extract every last drop from your fitness

There is more to racing well than simply being fit… that’s the easy part!

Tip: Work with a Coach to help you sort through and navigate all of the above..