A WSM* PSA - Race Plans
As a recently-made WSM, I'm gonna leverage my cred for a moment. I'm gonna be cruel to be kind. But I wouldn't if I didn't believe in what I was saying, and this is for your own good.
Anyhow - there are currently three things that make me mad:
-converting miles to kilometres;
-Celine Dion;
-when people spend 500-600h training for an event, don't write a race plan, and are surprised by something adverse that happens on race day.
Seriously, folks, there are a lot of very important things that go into making your race a success, but the plan is Very Very Important. If you've sat mesmerized by Rich at a 4 Keys talk, he does the spiel about "don't do dumb things on race day - your racing self owes it to your training self to execute judiciously." Remember how you nodded obediently? Made sense, yes? Well, I'm gonna paraphrase that, and say "Your cheque writing self who gets his/her EN Fees taken off the amex every month owes your race self the 20 minutes it takes to put pen to paper and draft a race plan."
The written plan is That Big of a Deal. It's part of the whole package of preparation, where you are taking the time to actually force yourself to think through and put in writing the deliberate steps, activities, responses, and everything else that let you be in control and on offence on race day. This is hugely important. And it's part of the chain of events that smoothly and deliberately puts you from OS sessions to Long Rides to big days to RR1s to RR2s to Mile 18 of the Marathon to flashing the gang sign at the finish. Don't break that chain.
More important, the action and the process of writing it makes your day one of deliberate action and executing based on a well-constructed, thorough plan to you keep calm, you don't do zany things, and when adversity inevitably strikes, you deal and move on. Last year, I had an IM where my goggles filled with water, I washed out a contact lens, my powermeter went to crap, I blew a tire, and I woke up with a cold on race day. No plan, and I'd freak at any one of those. With a plan, I just rolled with it and had a great day.
I do not care if you have done the course before. I don't care if you've done a race using the EN system before. You'll see all of the above then receive feedback and input and leverage the numbers and the grey matter we have inside the Haus on race day. I don't care who you are. Do the RR. You'll see the coaches do one. You'll see the WSM and Varsity cats do one. It aint because they are just talented writers; it's because they know that it's what you do when you prepare for a successful race.
-Celine Dion;
-when people spend 500-600h training for an event, don't write a race plan, and are surprised by something adverse that happens on race day.
Seriously, folks, there are a lot of very important things that go into making your race a success, but the plan is Very Very Important. If you've sat mesmerized by Rich at a 4 Keys talk, he does the spiel about "don't do dumb things on race day - your racing self owes it to your training self to execute judiciously." Remember how you nodded obediently? Made sense, yes? Well, I'm gonna paraphrase that, and say "Your cheque writing self who gets his/her EN Fees taken off the amex every month owes your race self the 20 minutes it takes to put pen to paper and draft a race plan."
The written plan is That Big of a Deal. It's part of the whole package of preparation, where you are taking the time to actually force yourself to think through and put in writing the deliberate steps, activities, responses, and everything else that let you be in control and on offence on race day. This is hugely important. And it's part of the chain of events that smoothly and deliberately puts you from OS sessions to Long Rides to big days to RR1s to RR2s to Mile 18 of the Marathon to flashing the gang sign at the finish. Don't break that chain.
More important, the action and the process of writing it makes your day one of deliberate action and executing based on a well-constructed, thorough plan to you keep calm, you don't do zany things, and when adversity inevitably strikes, you deal and move on. Last year, I had an IM where my goggles filled with water, I washed out a contact lens, my powermeter went to crap, I blew a tire, and I woke up with a cold on race day. No plan, and I'd freak at any one of those. With a plan, I just rolled with it and had a great day.
I do not care if you have done the course before. I don't care if you've done a race using the EN system before. You'll see all of the above then receive feedback and input and leverage the numbers and the grey matter we have inside the Haus on race day. I don't care who you are. Do the RR. You'll see the coaches do one. You'll see the WSM and Varsity cats do one. It aint because they are just talented writers; it's because they know that it's what you do when you prepare for a successful race.
Also, this is where you get your money's worth and more. Remember in January when you were all psyched up about the notion of Team Coaching? It's where the rubber hits the road on that model. You write the plan. Dude/ettes who have 20+ IM/HIM races in their legs, or have done the course ten times, or have examined every square inch of the bike on years of recon and camps then chime in. You listen, you adapt, your script improves, and then you have a better day.
I can go on and on because it's that valuable. Now that you're in the short strokes for the race, there's no excuse. Make the time. Bag your Wednesday swim and write it. Or drop the brick run (you could use the recovery anyhow), pour a beer, merlot or water, and write. Or don't dick around on slowtwitch arguing about wheels, and write. Whatever you need to do to find the time and get it done, find it.
For some of us, the plan is the script that is the difference between a finish, and not. Or a good day versus being in a very dark place for 70 miles. Or a podium / outright KQ versus an anxious rolldown. Whatever it is, it's a very easy and important tool in your EN race buildup. Do it.
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Great stuff Dave! Especially from the Plan Maestro himself!
I'm also a firm believer in putting a plan on "paper" to make it a reality. Sorta like visualization. I do it every race and I find it really helps me stay in the box: I have a plan and I do everything I can to stick to it. At IMAZ last fall I executed to within 5 minutes of my goal. I really believe thats because I had absorbed on a deep level the plan I had made for each stage of the race, by both rehearsing it and writing it down; I went into that race supremely confident that I knew what I was doing minute to minute, hour by hour. With that kind of prep and confidence, theres very little room for failure. Ultimately that kind of planning and rehearsal meant I was able to give my wife a list of splits for every stage and lap of the race that morning and was able to be on time down to the minute each and every time.
I think the most important part of having a well developed plan is that when things go wrong, as they are wont to do, if you follow your plan, and you've been careful to think about contingencies you are less likely to do something dumb. Just follow the plan, and get back on track. I believe the real key to success in IM/HIM is to prevent yourself from being dumb, its a big challenge for me, but thats why I race ultra races: lots of time to think things through carefully..... :0
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>http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/91/Default.aspx?topic=Triathlon+Checklists<
I can dig it.
Interesting concept to plan for things of which you can not conceive. Experience helps feeling out all of what is possible on race day. Despite all the planning and pre-thought, unexpected things will occur. So plan for everything that you can come up with but also keep a mindset that can deal with the totally unexpected in the moment on the day.
Agreed, Robin. One of the most powerful pre-race efforts is to plan for how you'll deal with unexpected adversity (which will almost certainly come up). Planning for a flat change, a dropped bottle, a loose bolt, a cut tire, etc, can make you feel like you're in control. But, then, all of a sudden, you're in a wet one-piece tri suit and you've got to take a dump.
Personally, I try to run through the 'instantaneous mindset' I want to live in for the race, both leading up to and on the morning of the race. It's a tough thing to practice, but I like to make my swim and bike very 'zen', just living in the moment, taking things as they come, and not judging anything. Bike watts aren't what I'm looking for? No big deal, adjust on the next few pedal strokes. Bumble bee in the bike helmet vent? Simply pull over, remove helmet, free bee, move on. Just focused on right now, what I can control. RnP call it 'staying in the box'.
For me, staying in the box becomes a different exercise on the run, because it's almost impossible to turn off the voice in my head when I'm running. But I try. And around mile 18, I start talking back, negotiating, focusing on the 'one thing'.
Having done some pre-race planning for the mindset I intend to live in goes a very long way to helping deal with unanticipated adversity.
I'm lucky enough to be able to compete for a podium spot in almost any race I show up at. But suceeding at that, Ive learned, depends in large part on the mindset I take into the race. Meaning the times I've told myself I was there to finish, or see what I could do, or simply get it done, that's what i ended up doing.
The times I've won, or done extremely well in terms of PR or CR, are the times I made a committment, usually a public one, far in advance of the race, of my determination to meet a specific time or place goal. And then I thought about that goal every day for months in advance of that race. I I'm convinced that the mindset you take into the race is (a) something that is months, not weeks or days in the making, and (b) has a very real and profound effect on how you perform on race day. Compared to training, creating a mindset is easy, all it requires i've found is thinking about the goals for amfew seconds each day. Your brain does the rest behind the scense. Come race day, that mindset is so,powerful, it requires NO conscious effort to,use it to,achive success. Sounds like BS, I know, but it works.
NB: its important to differentiate between dreams and goals/targets. Dreams don't have to be reality based; goals/targets do. Just thinking that I can do an Ironman in 10 hours wont make it happen. But planning to complete IM AZ in 11::20 this fall is realistic given my past performances there, current training paces, and age-related decline. But it won't be easy, and will take a completely dedicated mindset as well as a good plan. That mindset will be a year in the making.
As a relative newbie, i'll throw in my 2 cents. First, I could not agree with Dave more. The written plan for me at CDA was huge on a number of levels. I started working on my race plan for CDA right after my first race rehearsal. By and large it stayed the same with some modifications after RR #2, but more than tweaking the details, it really helped me get my mind ready to race. It helped to imprint that this is a big deal and that i was going in with a plan and my objective was to execute to the plan.
@Rian and @ Robin, to both your points about things going wrong... As a build up to my race i constantly kept in mind something i heard Patrick say in either a podcast or a weekly training plan video-cast, and that was.(paraphrasing)...."During raceday it will feel like things are conspiring against you throughout the day in an effort to take you out of your game."
@JW - Yea, i went over my race plan a lot, but i also prepared myself for the reality that stuff happens during a 12+ hour day that you can't plan for but yet you need to find a way to deal with to keep moving forward (and not pee in your shoes when your not moving
). During CDA I kept Patrick's words in my mind when my power meter battery died at about mile 60. Until that point i was feeling great and i was below my target watts and was starting to build. When it died, i just laughed to myself and thought, OK...Here we go. Having a race plan was certainly key, but being in the moment and ready for whatever the day was going throw at me was a big part of me being able to stay in my box and continue to execute as planned. More to come in the RR
Bottomline....I will never race a race that i care about without a written race plan. To me, having the collective wisdom of folks that have cumulatively raced hundreds of IM's is part of the reasonn why i pay to be part of EN. Not taking advantage of that wisdom is a missed opportunity IMO.
Coincidentally, reading and helping others review their plans is also another great way to help you think through what you need in your own plan. If you are doing a late August/early September IM, you should be reading and helping review the race plans those IMLP folks are posting (or should be posting) right around now!
Thanks all.
Yes the old dream versus reasonable goal thing. Something I think a lot about. Unsupported optimism versus positive thinking towards a physically attainable goal. Hopefully, with help from folks like you and the wisdom gained, I am living a grounded optimism.