MAINTAINING FITNESS OVER THE SUMMER SEASON

FITNESS The summer race season in Australia is a long one. Many of you will have started racing back in November and are still aiming for some events through March and into April. Five months is a long period of time to hold onto peak fitness. It is common for fitness levels to drop over the course of a race season, due to tapering periods in between races as well as both physical and mental fatigue. It definitely helps to have built a solid base before the start of your race season. However, even those who have trained consistently over winter and built a massive base, will find it near impossible to hold peak form for longer than 4-6 weeks. That is, unless they have properly planned ahead and structured in time for recovery as well as training blocks to re-boost aerobic endurance and base. In this article I will step you through a simple way to plan your race season. It might be the perfect building block for next year. I definitely recommend taking the time to prioritise the races you plan to do. Don’t make the mistake of simply racing one event to the next; it’s near impossible to be in form for them all. Try categorising your races into “A, B and C priority”.

CATEGORY A RACES

- Those races that mean the most to you and

you want to be in your best form for - For these races you should plan a full 7-10 day taper *Generally only 1-3 Cat A races per Season

CATEGORY B RACES

- Those races that aren’t the highest priority, but

you still want to be in good form for - For these races you should plan a shorter

3-5 day taper

CATEGORY C RACES

- Those races that you aren’t concerned about the

result of and are using for training purposes - No taper required