Fraser Darcy

It’s race week for a third of the athletes under the Fraser Darcy Coaching banner, including myself, and as such I thought I’d put together a brief newsletter on the topic. If you’re not racing, maybe it’s something you bookmark for later or maybe it’s something to read and let your subconscious work through until your next race.

Agenda:

• Race week vibes
• Pre-race logistics
• Race day and your plan
• Post-race

Race week vibes. For any serious A grade race I like to think of ‘race week’ as like Grand Final week when I used to play football. Everything just felt more fun and exciting at training in Grand Final week. The group was all up and about, the skills session was short and sharp and the weather was usually a bit warmer and nicer than the dreary muddy winter.

That same vibe can be translated to race week. The runs are shorter with some of the easy volume removed. It might be the last time you do your Monday loop for a while so you soak up all the memories of the previous several Monday’s you trudged through it. You start to work through what the carb load is going to look like and head to the shops on Wednesday to pick up all your goodies for said carb load. Please let me know if you want specific advice on that but it is covered generally as well later. As the taper kicks into gear by the end of the week you start feeling a bit fresher on your easy jogs and naturally run 10s/km a bit faster.

Basically, there’s a whole range of vibes you experience in race week and I suggest viewing them all from the perspective of ‘how good is this, I get to have a crack at the thing I’ve trained for’ is generally the best way to experience it. Running is fun after all and that’s just one element that keeps you coming back for more.

Pre-race logistics: Sort these out early. Like Wednesday early. Work out what you’re packing to take with you for the days before the race, the days after the race, during the race of course, pack all the carb load goodies you bought, work out how you’re getting to the expo to collect your bib, work out how you’re getting to your hotel or to the race start line. Go through all the permutations so that when it comes to actually getting off the plane and working out where you’re staying you’ve already figured that part out. It’s a helpful way to save you five minutes of unnecessary stress across your weekend and if I could choose one option from: perfect weather, perfect group to run with or perfect stress free logistics then I would always choose stress free logistics personally.

As part of your pre race logistics if you’re on the ‘coaching’ program you may want to call me and have a chat about the plan or any last minute questions. Great! For this week in particular I will be free on Wednesday and Friday after 10am for a call so shoot me a text on those days to tee one up and if I’m not quickly taking a shower or at the shops I’ll call you back. I’m travelling on Thursday so might be a bit busy on that day.

Race day and your plan: It helps to be honest and objectionable with yourself when working out your race plan. What did you sign up to achieve? Run a marathon in XX:XX or just run the marathon? Have those original goals inflated or deflated during the training block? What fitness are you in on a perfect day if everything goes well and what about if things were really windy and wet and miserable and your flight was cancelled, what time do you think you could run then? Lots of questions to ponder and obviously this will form part of yours and your coach’s decision making (me in this case but sometimes also a significant other who knows you just as well).

For a half marathon I like to aim closer to that ‘perfect day’ goal and if things get a bit hard you might lose 2-3% off that. Generally that’s enough of a buffer to still warrant a PB or a time most people are still really happy with. For a marathon, I like to aim closer to the ‘average day’ goal. Start there, find your groove and then once you’ve hit that part of the marathon where the chips are on the table (about 30km in) you usually start to work your way past all the people who started with the ‘perfect day’ in mind. A more conservative approach is better in the marathon as you can have a very bad and painful experience in the last 5-10km’s if you start too aggressive. A result like that will damage your future running goals and ambitions more so than thinking, oh I could’ve run the first half 2minutes quicker and I would’ve run 2 minutes quicker overall. Better to think like that at the end then the alternative of oh, if only I didn’t start so aggressive, when I blew up I cost myself 15 minutes in death marching.

Now a lot of the plan you have on race day will be about what pace to aim for and when to take your gels or drinks. Great. It also helps to take a second and go through all the permutations about what happens if you’re feeling crap at 12km’s in, what mental cue will you refer to to drive yourself forward? What inspirational movie or personal moment will you reflect on at 30km? Having a plan with the mental game is just as important as the physical game. You know yourself best here so have a think about your why for running and that will generally trigger something that is powerful. For Harry Potter fans, think of it like figuring out what your Patronus charm is. I like to think about any of the Rocky movies.

Post race. Relax, you’ve done it! Recover well and replenish your body with lots of good nutrients, sleep and plenty of pats on the back. If you have a great result, fantastic, celebrate it and write down all the things that went well with it first and then all the things you would like to improve for next time. If you have a poor result, ok, don’t beat yourself up, sports teams and athletes all over the world in every sport have bad days. Write down all the things you did well in your training and on race day and then get to work on figuring out what factors contributed to a poor result. Maybe it’s just a matter of perspective? Maybe it’s something out of your control? At the end of the day, running is for fun and there are no sheep stations involved.

A week or so after your race, or perhaps sooner if you’re mentally recovered, try working out what you would like to approach next with your running. It could be another marathon, or a different event or maybe something you identified from your marathon as an area you’d like to improve. Again, this is why you pay me the big bucks so please utilise my feedback if you wish and we can work out a good plan for your next running goal or adventure. This is a good spot to add in for people who are on the ‘coaching’ program, a post race debrief and outlook for the future will be great. I’ll be in Byron Bay Monday and Tuesday so will be happy to chat whenever on those days. I’m travelling back on Wednesday so that’s not a good day but Thursday onwards will be fine too!

A final to-do list item both immediately post race and also later on is gather all your memorabilia from your race (your medal, maybe your shirt etc.) store it well and collate any photos into an album on your phone or computer. Taking the time to organise these minor things helps a lot when you go to look back on everything in five years time!

AOB: I can elaborate more on carb loading principles if there is a request but the general rules are… eat pasta, rice, bread, whatever carb based food you prefer in place of protein and fat based meals (i.e. no quiches, no steaks, go for bland tomato based sauce pasta, pizza without a heap of cheese). Keep it simple, don’t overeat. Start from around Thursday dinner time. The last big meal should be Saturday lunchtime (I like to eat 500g of pasta for lunch in one sitting). Carbs in the form of drinks are all good (soft drink, fruit juices etc.).

Also, if you’ve read this far even though you’re not racing and you’re thinking, geez, I haven’t touched base with Fraser about my training in a while, take this as a reminder to get in touch!

Actions List (if you’re in race week):

You:

• Plan your pre race logistics
• Plan your carb load
• Look back over your training for confidence and to help…
• Sort out your race plan and then call me to chat about it or call me to chat about it and then we can sort it out together.
• Control what you can control
• Smile when you cross the finish line

Me:

• Hype YOU up (go you!)
• Give you an honest assessment of your race plan

The weather and everyone else:

• Cooperate nicely

Hope that covers it in a way that isn’t too much information overload in a week where you also want to lower the noise, stress and your PB. Above all, good luck, running is fun and thanks for reading!

Fraser