Coach Carter

Racing season is pretty much upon us now. This past weekend, several of my athletes had their first racing experiences after a long winter – the bad weather came so early this year, making winter feel longer. I sense this has enabled a little more ‘race rust’ to gather!

It is a nervous time for athletes – a combination of factors contributing to the anxiety. Some of it is simply feeling out of practice: whether its riding in the close proximity of others or remembering how to pace the effort over the race distance. Some nerves even come from paranoia of forgetting some kit – I accept some responsibility with that, as I scare people with my stories of "self sabotage" of race performances by neglecting the basics! A lot can be gained by knowing you have the race preparation under your control. There is little we can do about other’s behaviour / responses in a race, but we can make sure we go in to the first races of the season prepared: kit lists, race routine timings, knowledge of the course, weather etc. It takes most people a few early season races to get in to full flow (like for me one year when I forgot my undershirt and froze to death at 6:30 in the morning early March. Needless to say, I didn’t forget it the following week). Indeed, its one of the reasons I advocate at least 3 races early season to dust yourself off before even thinking about fine tuning or hitting peak form.

However, probably the biggest source of anxiety is related to something else: knowing where our fitness is after the winter’s training. Yes, we might see power outputs rising against a given heart rate, yes we might feel more in shape and perhaps even see ourselves coping with the training load in a better way. We might also measure ourselves against a known route, or time up a local hill climb. PBscience athletes also have lab tests or regular prescribed efforts over fixed time periods, so called ‘power profiling’. BUT (the capital letters indicate its a big but!), no amount of reassurance from Coach seems to lessen the pre-race nerves especially the first shake down of the season. It is worth noting that the scale of FEAR is normally related to the scale of how little control we feel we have.

Of course, there are strategies to help manage the extent of the nerves. On my part, I can counsel the riders on process vs outcome goals in our regular weekly chats. I will ask for a particular focus that the athlete is looking to address in the coming race, maybe asking for two goals / objectives. However, even though these are agreed between coach-athlete, I don’t think there has been one conversation post race weekend that hasn’t been tinged with some kind of disappointment about the race outcome. I draw the attention back to the pre-race objectives, and even if these have been ticked off, I still find myself hearing “I feel I could have performed better”. One of my riders this Monday even explained how he felt if he had worked on his top end power he might have won the event. Indeed, I didn’t disagree, but his goal is still some 10 weeks away and he won’t ever have to sprint in it!

I always listen from an position of understanding. In my own racing career each year I would clearly lay out goals for the season; and in discussiosn with my coach Louis, I always had a specific objective for the training races: from hitting a target cadence to perhaps exploring an ‘interesting’ pacing strategy. Looking back, those races probably brought me on so much more than ‘successful’ race performances. Not just because the pacing exercises taught me about how to use my physiology better, or using a higher cadence helped my race efficiency: it was more fundamental than that. It taught me that ‘failing’ is the best thing you can experience as an athlete: you may ask how was I ‘failing’ if I was focusing and hitting my pre-race objectives? Because I was (still am!) human. It is very hard to release the shackles of always wanting to be better than we are, better than others too. After all, competition is all about being better than others, or improving our existing standard. And, disappointment can be a useful tool when tapped appropriately and with self-care. The ‘perfect’ scenario after all is when we not only hit our race prep targets but we also crack a PB too!! Take the example of my ‘race cadence goal’ – I came back from a 25 mile TT race having hit my target of 100rpm for the entire race: whilst chuffed to bits that I attained that (being a typical time trial diesel, I was more comfortable grinding at 85rpm by nature), there was still a fragment of me that wanting to have gone faster.

The solution? Well, it takes time – awareness of our reactions is a good starting point. Judge this by writing down your pre-race objectives, and if you can share them with someone else. Have them printed off and stored in your car. After the race, go back to the car BEFORE the HQ – rate your performance against the objectives: how do you feel? Now, go in to the HQ to get the official results: how do you feel now? Any change? If so, what changed those feelings?

I know from my own experiences in racing that this attitude takes some time to develop. For me, it got to the point that I no longer needed to even go in to the HQ to check the results board: if my job was done, I could go home and start the recovery - although I would often hang around to get the obligatory post-race cuppa and chat with my friends. The social side of racing is another good reason to do early season racing: again especially after a long winter of solitude. But do be careful not to be drawn in to the traps of de-briefing with other racers...the attitude of racing without attachement to performance outcome is tough enough to develop without more challenge: remember, others will have their own race anxieties / expectations to deal with.

Keep the bigger picture at the forefront of your mind. Early season races are in preparation for the bigger things to come - "keeping your powder dry" also applies to using less stress up in the minor events.