What to do when your race sucked.

So you had a terrible race, now what?

This situation can be even more painful for a half  or full IRONMAN due to the amount of time and money invested to even just get to the starting line.

When the results turn out terrible, it’s time to take a real hard look at your training log over the previous 2-3 months leading up to the race. Now sometimes there are situations that are out of your control, like tacks on the road, bad weather etc. But you can usually prevent most of your races from going south.

You need to look and be honest with yourself. Did you really put in the volume and intensity that your training program called for? Did you do those hard intervals that your coach had in your Training Peaks? Did you hit the minimums for long course racing that include 3 swims, 3 bikes, 4 runs and 2 strength sessions per week? Did you train on similar terrain and conditions to your race?  Long course racing is no joke, and it’s hard for me to see my own athletes struggle on course as I watch my IM Tracker.

My goal as a coach is to actually make  training  a little bit  harder than the race will be so that you can handle all the race day stress and logistics; saying to yourself, “So that’s why she made me do 25 bridge repeats, etc.”

It takes a lot of mental and physical fortitude to toe the line at a triathlon (long course and short course)  believe it or not. You hear people talk about it like its no big deal. But, not everyone comes out of the womb swimming, biking and running!

If you have not been challenged and had to work hard to overcome set backs in your training, success on race day is unlikely. It’s really all about the journey and race day is the test. Did you do your homework? Most of the time all the reasons why your race sucked are right there in the training log, where you skipped that swim, bike, or run. Decided to take 10 days off instead of two, eat pizza and drink beer.

If you made the commitment to sign up for the triathlon race, you might as well do everything you can to get it right! Listen to your coach!

So now, I know you are super motivated to get it right next time! Recover well, write out the whole painful experience, so you can look back before your next race and remember not to let that happen again!!!!

Happy Racing!!!

Wishing you well,
Coach Erinne