Team Innerforce's 2019 coach, Rick Lapinski, explains how to effectively plan your race schedule in order to get the most out of your training.
We're almost a month into the year and the race season is sneaking up on us!
Each athlete is different, and each race distance requires a different type of preparation. Whether you're gearing up for a season of Sprint/Olympic distance racing, or you're gearing up for an attack on the 70.3 race distance; maybe you're even going really long...like Ironman long! It's important to take into account what your goals are for the year.
When planning your season, take these things into account. If you're training to race Sprints/Olympics you can race more frequently (1-2x per month) and still race successfully, as long as you have the races spread out well and you don't race back-to-back weekends too frequently.
If you're planning on racing longer (70.3 or Ironman) then you can utilize those shorter races to help you prepare, but you shouldn't lose sight of your bigger goals. Sometimes racing a sprint which will take you less than two hours is not beneficial to what your overall training plan would call for. That's not to say you can't race, but you may need to add some more training to your day after that shorter race.
A few recommendations: typically (not always) you will want your longest race of the season to be at the end of your year. So normally you wouldn't start your year with an Ironman and finish with sprint distance races. You don't have to schedule things that way, or that you can't be successful, but typically that's not how we line things up.
Also, make sure you are planning your races at times when you can have a solid couple of weeks leading into the race. You don't want to return from a family vacation heading into a race, especially if your training isn't consistent during that vacation. But most importantly, remember we do this for fun! Get out there, put your head down and do the work in training, and have a great race season!
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