NEW- SEASON RACE PREP
Well first up, an ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ race are all the same when the gun goes off – you go hard, you race hard, you stick to the plan you’ve worked out with your coach, mates or yourself, and if there’s no plan at all, still just go for it! The only real difference will be your performance level, but it’s relative to what your medium and long-term plans are for the season.
The worst thing you can do is go into an early-season race and expect to do a personal best by comparing your current state of fitness to when you were at your best last season (or, most likely, from your 2019 season. There’s no like for like in triathlon, every race and performance are so different.
If you have a training race early season, now that’s something completely different. Maybe you’re working on certain elements of your race, are trying out new nutrition or kit, or even a new pacing strategy. Or maybe you’re going easy in one discipline to work harder in another. I’m always on the fence about training races as the whole point of racing is, well, to race, I guess. With the athletes I coach we’d rather do a set key session instead of toeing the line knowing we’re not going to give 100% all the time.
The other point about racing early when we know we’re maybe not in our best shape is the mental side of the outcome – can we take the
