Written by Brian Grasky - Head Coach

Late season is the time when many athletes look forward at their upcoming races and panic sets in. Am I fit enough? Have I trained enough? Did that cold I had in March affect my November race?

These are all questions that each of us have had. Some of us will succumb to these thoughts and that little seed of anxiety will grow into linger self-doubt and ultimately will ruin our day mentally. The successful are those who can leave these thoughts on the side of the road.

Here are my thoughts on the final weeks leading to your "A" race:

• Don't panic. If you’ve had a good coach or followed a good plan, you’re on track. Take a few minutes to look back through your training logs and at your training test results. Notice all the miles you put in. Notice all the work you did to nail your nutrition plan and your pacing plan. Look through how what used to be a hard set in the pool is now an easy workout. Look at your splits from the early season compared to now. You're fit. Everything is going to be fine.

• Taper. Plan your taper out and hold to it. Listen to your coach. Now is not the time to squeeze in that one more 8 hour brick two weeks out because you missed 2 four hour bricks in June. Your body doesn’t get stronger while training; it gets stronger in the recovery from training. A taper is just a longer recovery period, designed to allow for all that training to take hold and to keep you sharp for race day.

• Relax. Take some time for yourself away from the hustle and bustle of triathlon and triathletes. Get away for a day or a weekend. Take a day off of work to do stuff around the house or go to the beach. Get away from triathlon for a while if it begins to consume you.

• Prep your equipment. Take the time now to get new tires or bar wrap if you’re planning to before the race. Don’t wait until race week. Tires and chains and cables will stretch and you want time to get them re-tuned before the race, so if you’re planning a tune-up, do it 3-4 weeks out. New wheels handle and feel differently than your training set, so get them early and ride on them before race week. And if you get a new bike before your race, make sure it fits you the same as your old one. The month before race day is not the time to find new muscles!

• Train at your race pace. Without going against your taper plan, many of your training sessions should be at race pace. Get used to the feel of the speed at which you plan on racing. There should be nothing new on race day, including your pacing and speed. One of the most popular race day saboteurs is going out too fast from either (or both) T1 or T2. Get used to your pacing plan, and understand that being “shaved and tapered” will make you feel better on race day, so you’ll even have to slow it down some more.

• Eat and sleep. Plan to get more sleep these days. Eat right and don’t overeat during your taper. Equally as important, avoid under eating thinking that since you're training less you’re burning fewer calories. Your metabolism will stay high during the taper, so don't over think this. Eat when your body needs food, sleep when it needs rest.

• Get a massage. Or two.

• Visualize your race. Visualization is a great way to go through how the race should be before it happens. It’s been proven that if you can see yourself doing something, you can do it. And we all know that once we do accomplish something difficult, it gets easier. Apply that to racing. Visualize your entire race, from showing up in the morning to the finish line. Visualize how you feel, what your pace or heart rate or power is, how your transitions go, and especially any parts of the race you feel apprehensive about. Do this daily for a few weeks and you&'ll realize gains you never thought you could.

So there you go. Now it's race time. You’re tapered, relaxed, and you know how the race is going to go because you saw it happen already. Lastly, in the words of Ironman Champ Paula Newby Frasier, expect that something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong, so be ready for it. You have no control over some things: like somebody elbowing you in the face in the water, taking your helmet in T1, walking in front of you on the course, or an aid station running out of water (these have all happened to me). When something happens, be relieved - it's done; now the rest of the race can go smoothly. Don't let one bad situation ruin your entire race.

Now have fun. After all, that's why we're doing this. Right?

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Brian Grasky is a USA Triathlon Level 2 certified coach and owner/founder of Grasky Endurance Coaching. GEC coaches elite and beginner athletes in all endurance sports. Brian can be reached at www.graskyendurance.com.

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