December 29, 2016
A well-structured racing season can help to improve your race results and reduce your injury-risk.
Two weeks ago, I shared why racing too often can kill performance.
The article talked about how racing regularly can throw out your load / recovery balance and lead you into a state of fatigue that could affect your ability to race to your potential when it really matters to you.
While that article highlighted a common performance limiter for many athletes, it didn’t detail how to plan the races you do each year.
So continuing from that conversation, I’d like to address the question that naturally follows after: how do you optimally plan the races you do each year to maximise your potential and lower your risk of injury?
Today, with the new year fast approaching, I’ll share the tips I give our athletes that help them plan their season in a way that will minimise the risk of injury and burnout.
Bonus: At the end of this article, I’ve included a handy season planning template that we use at Coached to structure the season of the athletes we coach.
Let’s set this straight, once and for all: everyone has a different background. Your fitness level, experience, and goals are unique to you. How often you race and how you recover is entirely personal, and this is why a one-size-fits-all approach will not work.
So as you design your season next year, here are some thoughts on how you should consider selecting your races to find the ‘racing recipe’ that works best for you.
Racing at your potential and enjoying training is easy when you’re following the right programme.
‘A’ Priority
Primary, or peak races as they’re commonly known, are your most important races of the year. These are your ‘A’-Races. These races become the ‘anchors’ of your racing and training schedule, and you should build your season to have you in prime condition for these events.
Where these races differ most from secondary races is in the length of the taper. To ensure you are fully recovered and fresh to race fast, ‘A’-Races should come with a full taper built into your training plan.
Some notes on ‘A’-Races:
Secondary races are less important races that should complement your preparation for your ‘A’ races. These races allow you to hone your racing skills and dial in your race day processes such as prepping your gear, nutrition, pacing and the like.
Secondary races come in two forms.
‘B’ Priority
‘B’ Priority races are still important, and you want to run well in these, but they are not as crucial as your ‘A’-Race. As such, you do not plan your training around them. The taper period into and out of the race is shorter, meaning that you may expect to feel less fresh during the secondary races as you’ll hope to.
Some notes on ‘B’-Races.
‘C’ Priority
Some notes on ‘C’-Races.
Like training, nutrition and all other performance areas, finding the right recipe for you will take time, trial and error.
To help speed this process up and make improvements year-on-year, it’s useful to set aside some time at the end of each year (now’s a good time) to sit down and do an objective assessment of your year and how you felt things went.
Use our FREE Season Planning Template to layout your year of training and racing.
With that, I wish you a safe, healthy and fast 2017 from all the team here at Coached.
Ben Pulham
Ben Pulham is the founder of Coached, a personalised training programme that helps runners & triathletes optimise, track and enjoy their training.