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Welcome to the Race Preparation Phase (Race Prep)!

During this period, training becomes much more race specific on a number of levels. Below are our thoughts, notes, and ideas about the Race Prep phase — where the rubber meets the road and you being to build the endurance and other tools required on race day!

Race Specific Intensity

In general, as you get deeper into Race Prep and closer to your A-race, your opportunities to become faster decrease. Volume goes up in order to prepare you for the demands of the event. As a consequence, intensity is dialed down a bit and we shift our focus away from the “make me faster” intensities. Below are our notes on how we manipulate intensities and volume during the Race Prep phase of our three main flavors of training plans: 

Short Course Triathlon: Long bike and long run volume goes up a tick while we don’t really dial down the intensities of these sessions much from what you were doing in the General Preparation Phase. The result is that you get more comfortable with being (very) uncomfortable, which is at the heart of short course racing — the ability to push through that “I’m going fast, working really hard and it REALLY hurts” kinda pain of short course racing.

Half Ironman / 70.3: We shift the intensity of our sessions to more and more Zone 3 time, which is where you’ll spend the majority of your time on race day. The long runs become especially challenging so that, similar to our Short Course plans, you become comfortable with the uncomfortable…which can often be hung around your neck for an hour or more on the half Ironman run.

Ironman: We have you working just a tick above race effort in key portions of your Long Rides and Runs. The Ironman long bike, in the Race Prep phase, is your go-to session for learning all manner of things you’ll use on race day — nutrition, hydration, positional fitness, identifying any niggles with bike fit, gearing, gear, etc. But against this learning opportunity, best done at race effort, we also need to balance our requirement to maximize the efficiency of every training minute spent — to accrue an optimal level of training stress for every minute of training time you have on the bike.  Your runs will start as Split Runs, building to some key longer efforts…and the swims are all focused as well.

Race Specific Learning

Our next requirement is that you learn and experiment with lots of stuff at your race specific intensity above. Here is the short list of opportunities and items you should work into your Race Prep phase:

Positional Fitness: Consider the fatigue that accumulates from riding hours and hours in the aerobars, after a swim, and then immediately take that positional fatigue out for a run. We’ve all been there and it becomes a serious consideration as race distance increases. Therefore, the volume and race specificity of the Race Prep Phase is your best opportunity to expose, identify, and improve your positional fitness:

• Pre-Fatigue: If your logistics allow it, find opportunities to pre-fatigue your neck, shoulders, and lower back before a few of your long rides. Swimming is the best method and our Big Days and Race Rehearsals below are excellent opportunities to build into your training plan.
• Purposely Stress: Lock yourself in the aerobars and then wear sunglasses with a thick upper frame that force you to crane your neck to look over them. Purposely stress your neck and shoulders in this manner on every ride and then wear frameless sunglasses on race day. Your neck and shoulders will thank you!
• Bike Fit Tweaks: Very simply, that bike fit that feels great at the shop and on a 2hr ride might not feel so hot after you’ve pre-fatigue your upper body and locked yourself in the aerobars for over four hours. There can often be a difference between a good short course bike fit and a long course bike fit, and this difference will be exposed through time in the saddle. If this is the case, don’t be afraid to fix it, now. The common issues we see are hamstring and lower back tightness, and possible fixes, in order of preference, are:

Epic Ride(s): This is a combination of a Long Bike with an optional run, all in one day. The intent is to force a large dose of single aerobic volume into your system in a single shot, boosting your fitness and forcing you to solve the problems of nutrition, comfort and mental acuity by putting it all together across a long day. 

Race Rehearsals: Each of our plans includes two race rehearsals. These are your opportunities to screw it up (the first time), learn, improve, and do it right (the second time). These are without a doubt the single most important workouts of your entire training plan. Look for a more detailed training article on this topic from us later this summer.

Race Specific Mental Strength

Nearly every race will include some quality face time with the Evil Man with the Big Stick who is beating the crap out of you. Sometimes that pain will be very intense but with a relatively short time horizon, as in short course racing. Other times the pain will build and build with seemingly no end in sight, as in long course racing. Regardless of what flavor of Evil Man you’ll have a heart-to-heart with on game day, every training session during Race Prep should be used an opportunity to experience this discomfort, anticipate what it will feels like, what body / mind conversations you’ll have on race day, and rehearse your debating points. 

Every training session is an opportunity to project yourself into the Pain of race day and then visualize yourself accepting and overcoming this Pain. In the end, this is what you’ve signed up — the opportunity take yourself to the edge, answer the call, and see what you’re made of. After all, if it were easy they’d call it football! 🙂

Endurance Nation Podcast

• Triathlon Race Preparation Tips: How to master race-specific training

FULL Plan Race Prep Breakdown

14 Weeks to Race Day

Main Items:

• Step #1 — Review Welcome to the Race Support Series and Your Race Group
• Step #2 — Introduce Yourself to your Teammates! Please go the Official Introductory Thread (above), introducing yourself to your teammates and telling them a little about you. These are the folks you’ll be training with side by side, and racing and socializing with the weekend of the event, so please use this opportunity to get to know them.
  

Other Items:

• Buy Your TeamEN Race Gear: Racing with TeamEN is 100 times better if you are dressed for the part. Even your family won’t know what you look like, so do everybody a favor and kit up for the big race! Purchase Your EN Uniform, purchase a Team T-Shirt (Family + Kid Options!), etc. 

• Visit the EN Store Here. 

• IRONMAN TriClub Program: Make sure your race “counts” for Team points!

12 Weeks to Race Day 

Coach Rich discusses the milestone training events we’ve schedule within the Race Preparation Phase of your Endurance Nation Training Plan. Race Support Series: Milestone Training Events

10 Weeks to Race Day 

Race Support Series: The Power of Racing in EN Kit

You know the old saying…..”Never Do Anything New on Raceday” You should do several long rides and/or runs in the kit you will be wearing on Race Day. Ordering now, should ensure it gets to your door for you to wear during your second RR. Check out what we have available in our Store.

8 Weeks to Race Day 

As you know, Endurance Nation wrote the book on how to execute long course triathlon, with detailed race execution guidance just a click away in the Wiki and Forums for members of the Team.

 Please visit this resource page to watch a video on what we’ve created for you with regards to Race Execution Resources.

7 Weeks to Race Day 

Welcome to another Coach update on your Race Preparation journey. This week Coach Patrick will walk you through preparing for and executing your first Race Rehearsal. For those of you targeting an Ironman®, there will be some additional information on how to best implement “Camp Week” in your plan. Race Support Series: Race Rehearsal #1 and Camp Week

•  Reminder — Register for the IRONMAN Triclub Program: Make sure your race “counts” for Team points!

4 Weeks to Race Day 

With the race just a few weeks away we want to ensure you’re getting your Race Execution Ninja Suit on, and also draw your attention to the Pre-Race Webinars, Team Dinner, Four Keys Talk (if available), and Post Race Call with Coach. There’s a lot of training going on, so we hope you are recovering and taking care of your body!

Race Support Series: Swim and Bike Race Execution

3 Weeks to Race Day 

You must be getting excited with the race about two weeks away, but at the same time this is when the questions start to pile up– “Have I done enough, what’s up with my FTP, am I going to make race weight.” With the final portion of the race upon you, it’s time to make sure you are ready to finish what you started at 7am. Coach Patrick will also cover some basic nutrition information. 

Run Execution and Nutrition Management

2 Weeks to Race Day 

Race Day is looming. Even the most veteran athletes are feeling the pressure. Stay focused on what matters most; here’s exactly what you need to know for race week:  

Race Support Series: Race Week Guidance

1 Weeks to Race Day 

Race week is here and you LITERALLY have a gajillion things to do before your Ironman®. Good thing you have TeamEN on your side! Please refer to the information in the right sidebar for relevant main events like the Team Dinner, Four Keys and much more. 

GroupMe: GroupMe is a FREE group messaging service we use during training camps and during race weeks for athletes to communicate with each other. Learn more about the service HERE

Download: The only thing harder than getting to the finish line…is getting to the event. What to pack? What will you need? What can you fly with? What helps with blisters? What if it rains? All these things are solved with a very well-laid out checklist.

1 Weeks Post Race 

Congrats on your race and your accomplishments! We’d love to see pictures from your race and read any reports you publish. 

 If you post to social media remember to use the hashtag #EN4Keys and to mention Endurance Nation so we are included. 

 Here is how you can mention / include us online: Twitter (@teamen), Instagram (@teamendurancenation) and/or Facebook (@EnduranceNation). Just remember to include the Race Name!

 Now that we have given you a few days to hopefully reacquaint yourself with…yourself, your family, your job, it’s time to discuss “What’s Next?” 🙂  

 Load Up our Transition Training Plan and additional post race resources. Review the Post Race Process & Steps — PLEASE READ!!

 Time for you to seriously recover. Here are a few articles from the EN Archives to help you think about the process of recovery:

• Bouncing Back from Ironman
• Your Race is Over, What About Life as You Know It?​
• Post Race Call with Coach (TeamEN Only)  Set one up with Coach Patrick (Sidebar)

• Set up a call with the coaches to review the race and how to plan the remainder of your season in a 15-minute phone call.

3 Weeks Post Race 

By now you should be enjoying your Transition Training plan and all the rest, recovery and sleep that comes with no longer training like your life depended on it. Capturing your race and all of the lessons learned is a critical part of your athletic development. 

TeamEN Athletes: Please take the time to review our post race guidance to ensure you are covering all the bases!

• Post Race Process and Steps — PLEASE READ!!