HONE YOUR RACE SCHEDULE

Work W kd deadlines, dli f family il commitments, it t holidays… h lid ensure that th t you plan pl you race around d your non-tri life. Over to Mark Kleanthous, a man with 500+ triathlon finishes to his name

1 PLAN FOR SUCCESS

When picking your tri race schedule, diarise all your nonrace commitments including family occasions, weddings and holidays – and don’t omit demanding work deadlines. Pencil in your desired races, starting with your A-race, then add in your chosen B and C events. You need to test your fitness, equipment and nutrition in your B and C races as these events allow sufficient time for adjustments and fine tuning before your main triathlon. Plan in your taper a minimum of two weeks before your A-race to absorb and benefit from your training.

2 WHAT TO CONSIDER

We all have different and constantly changing life demands, family, work or financial concerns that impact our preparation and completion of our tri races. You need to manage how these demands affect you; for example, a week away with work may allow more rest time or can be extremely tiring. So, before booking a race, consider how these may impact on you. Improving your sleep quality and quantity before a race is hugely

underrated; in endurance sport it has a big impact on your ability to compete better and recover well. 3 ALLOW SPACE BEFORE YOU RACE

As a prolific racer, I’ve learnt that over-racing in a season is highly destructive. Racing is much more demanding than training, so don’t compete in back-to-back weekend races as this will deplete your hard-earned winter endurance rapidly and your A-race will suffer. Short-course racing is fun, but don’t underestimate its demands if you’re racing an Ironman in 2018. This form of racing isn’t specific to an Ironman race and can distract you from focusing on the main goal.

4 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE B-RACE

Confidence comes from correct preparation and a wellexecuted race. You are the only one who can truly control how much and how well you prepare, so use your B-race as an important rehearsal for your A-race. The experience gained and personal analysis of feedback of what works for your morning breakfast, your race nutrition, pacing strategy, clothing and bike equipment can only be acquired by competing.

5 PROGRESS GRADUALLY FOR IRONMAN

Having competed in 39 irondistance events in a vast range of countries and conditions, the key long-distance focus that I’ve learnt is to keep training at your ‘all day pace’. You must progress the duration of training in each discipline very gradually. And remember, triathlon is one sport, not three and training in each discipline has an impact on the other two. Also, never forget that we go faster in training than we will in our actual Ironman event.

“Remember, triathlon is one sport, not three and training in each discipline has an impact on the other two”