LONG COURSE RACING: YOUR FITNESS DOESN’T MATTER

WHEN IT COMES to long course racing, most athletes don’t fully exploit their fitness on race day – only well-prepared athletes (and a few lucky ones) nail it. There are three main reasons why:

A lot of athletes don’t want to think at all during a race – they just put their head down and simply swim, bike and run. Is this you? Do you feel that anything that causes you to think, react or plan is intruding on your training? To perform well in a long-distance race, it’s imperative that you plan. You also have to practise and be willing to modify your training based on numerous factors, then repeat that entire process again and again.

Here are a few tips that will help you get all these factors right on race day:

1.

1. 2. 3.

We get our race day nutrition wrong We get our race day pacing wrong We get our race day headspace wrong

Nutrition

You need to know how much of each of the following to consume during long training sessions and races: fluids, calories and salt. Here’s a starting point for each:

A)

FLUIDS: To find out how much you’ll need to take in when it comes to fluids, weigh yourself pre- and post-workout. Find the difference (converted to grams). Add the amount of fluid you consumed (ml of fluid + g of bodyweight loss = total fluid loss) and divide this number by the workout duration. You’ll be left with an hourly fluid loss (ml per hour). Use this as a starting point for a fluid replacement goal during workouts of 90 minutes and longer.