The Three ‘R’s
The season has ended and this is a time for Rest, Recovery, and Reflection. Rest and recovery because all athletes, even the most experienced, need a period of rejuvenation after weeks of training and racing. Reflection because this is the time to evaluate the season that’s ended, identify strengths and weaknesses, and set goals for the year to follow. This then is a time of reduced training volume, lower intensity workouts, alternative types of exercise, with the dark nights providing an opportunity to pore over last season’s training log and race results.
There are many ways to review race results. A simple method would be to compare your times for the three disciplines in a particular race to the times of the fastest athletes in those disciplines (male or female as appropriate) and also the overall winner. Expressed as percentages, these give a very basic but reasonable indication of your own strengths and weaknesses. However, for a rigorous assessment, you’ll need a more detailed training log to analyse individual elements within each discipline. Take the bike for example. How do you rate your performance over the first 5 miles? Are you good at climbing? Do you relish the prospect of fast descents with tight corners? How do you perform in the wet and cold? Answers to questions like these provide information which helps to set goals and choose races for next season. And this is just the start! A well maintained training log would include, amongst others, items relating to nutrition, weight management, illness, injury, and psychological fitness providing a real wealth of data for subsequent analysis. It depends on how serious you are about improving your performance!
The next stage is to consider your goals for next season, but first decide how much time you really can devote to training and racing. The keyword is balance. Remember that you have a life outside of triathlon; don’t kid yourself that work, college, friends and family will play second fiddle for long without some conflict. Having done that, turn your attention to performance goals for next year. Set just one or two challenging goals but be realistic; Rome wasn’t built in a day and all athletes take time to reach their full potential. Try to base your goals on actual times. Your goal might be to race a sub 2 hr 30 min standard distance race or to complete a sprint tri which includes a 30 minute bike split and finishes off with an 18 minute run. Much depends on your current form, your strengths and weaknesses, and your reasons for racing. Write down your performance goals for next year and keep them safe, preferably on the front page of next year’s training log.
Now let’s briefly consider technical goals; this is an area where you may need help from an experienced coach. Let’s say you identified swimming as an area for improvement when setting your performance goals. The coach should be able to decide whether it’s a basic lack of fitness or, as is more likely, an aspect of technique that impedes progress. If it’s technique, a sound understanding of stroke analysis will help to identify fundamental problems and prescribe appropriate remedial drills. For example, your technical goal might be to improve streamlining by improving rotation and learning to breathe bilaterally. Technical goals should also be identified for cycling and running. Add your technical goals to the performance goals in the front of your log.
With your performance and technical goals sorted, you’re already better prepared for the season ahead. The next job is to ensure that you have a training programme that is specifically designed to help you achieve these goals. A good coach may be a sound investment.