May 2006. My very first endurance triathlon - Ironman Florida 70.3. I had no idea if I trained right for the distance or what I needed to be aware of on race day. So, the only thing I had control over was my attitude and at the ripe age of 23 (almost 24), I was overly confident and I was stubborn enough to believe I had done everything right to race my first half ironman.
As for packing my transition bag - well, that was another story. This is totally a newbie picture.
But we all know that race day performances are built on consistent actions. You eventually learn how to train smarter, pace better and plan ahead. Eventually, if you set your sights on your goals - dreams reallly do come true....even if you still feel like a newbie - 6 years later.
For when you train the body to perform, your race day performance is solely dependent on your fitness - on that day.
When I work with my athletes, I thrive off seeing them progress with their training, only to get ancy the week or two before a race. The best feeling I can get as a coach is knowing that my athletes are ready to jump out of their skin to get to the starting and that they are hungry to race.
As for my nutrition athletes, I realize that I am not always working with them on a daily basis, leading up to their key race. Many times, they have a coach. However, I still find it practical to help athletes with race week and race day nutrition in order to perform optimally on race day for many times, not having a well-laid nutrition plan is a missing link in how athletes perform on race day.
I wanted to provide a few of my favorite blog posts on gearing up to an endurance event in order to help prepare others for a successful race day. Knowing that an endurance race is mostly mental, it is critically important to understand the other variables that may affect performances:
1) Attitude
2) Gear/clothing
2) Gear/clothing
3) Nutrition
4) Pacing
When you consider the above categories and what you can control on race day, you are going to be in a bette frame of mind and with that, confidence improves and you will race smarter.
Enjoy some of my favorite posts:
(Any questions - please comment or send me an email)
IMWI race report
IMKY race report
2007 IM World championship race report - warning: I was injured and do not encourage athletes to race an endurance race injured or ill
Keep your mind focused and pace your own race. Getting to the starting line is the hardest part of training. The fun starts and continues until you reach the finish line.