2017 IM Canada - Start of the 4 KEYS

Laura Becker

Week 17

Thank you Dave for offering to post some insider knowledge!! And David thanks for chiming in! Where is everyone else??? Now we are 4 weeks out from race week! So let’s get chatting.  There are 4 Keys of Racing within EN. What sets EN athletes drastically apart from other athletes is the ability to know to race. You're putting in the training and so make sure to post your information with the team to discuss but as you wind down your training in the next couple weeks.......you need to put your head in a space to have the 4Keys down pat. Even if you have been with EN for awhile, there is always something to learn or something you can teach to help someone else's race experience.

Not to reinvent the wheel here is a mixture of coaches perspective and a couple other race captains:

X - Race day is about execution NOT fitness

Theme for this week is important.  Start visualizing your upcoming RR2 and Race Day in terms of simply Executing your Fitness:

The majority of athletes on race day are fitness-focused (look at my T-shirt, look at my abs/veins/etc, look at how fast I can go in the first hour of the bike, etc.). They think of race day as the application of their fitness to the course, the distance. They are wrong. Race day is about the application of sound execution skills to a long day. Your fitness is just along for the ride. Through our observation of many, many races we can tell you that fully 90% of athletes out there do not understand this and do not know how to execute properly. For the Endurance Nation athlete then, race day is largely an exercise is doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing!

Easy to read/comprehend the above, difficult to actually apply on race day, when you feel rested, invincible with adrenaline and the best you have felt during the entire training cycle.  So important to start thinking and scripting this concept now.

Some other important notes- Check out the videos this week about sports specific tapering AND checking your gear! Start this  NOW because race week WILL sneak up on you!!!!

Good Job team.... keep chipping away, two more weeks left of fitness

*** EN GEAR:  Make sure to check out our AMAZING store at Trisports! http://www.trisports.com/endurance-nation.html

Dave Tallo

So true, Laura.    Thanks for highlighting this ... and to so easy to lost sight of the basics once you get into the "house of mirrors"  (my nickname for the distortions that start to happen about a month out from race day), and your four keys reminder comes at the right time.

camp weekend for me, and I'm heading to a 90 min massage to strip away some of the muscle hurt at the e o b today.