The training is done (or not, but too late to worry about that now), and you are ready to go to the race. Maybe it's your first race and you are excited and ready to go. Maybe you have been thinking about this race ever since the last one. Maybe you got a result in the previous race and are looking for more, or maybe you didn't do yourself justice and looking to put things right. Either way you have analysed the previous race in great detail (possibly to an extent where your partner, colleagues, friends, children, have told you to stop talking about it.....), and are motivated to ride the next one. But what happens on race day?
The bags have been packed (and possibly the car) since the night before and everything is ready to go. All you have to worry about is waking up on time so as not to rush out the door in a panic. Being early is the way to go. Being late puts you on the back foot before the race has even started, and you will be chasing all the way to the start line. Give time for a relaxing stress free breakfast (there will be enough stress in the race), and then give yourself plenty of time to reach the event. Aim to reach the event between ninety minutes and two hours before the start time. This will give you loads of time to do things that take up a surprisingly large amount of time (toilet,sign on, chat, bike set up, more chat, banana, number pinning, drink, toilet, more chat, drink, warm up, toilet.......you get the idea). With time to spare you can afford to be sociable. Cycling is unique in that the camaraderie between competitors is strong and chatting, laughing, and joking with your "rivals" from other teams and clubs is part of the whole racing experience and one that adds to the enjoyment of racing. It also helps dissipate the nervous energy that everyone feels in the lead up to the race, and keeps you a little more relaxed. While you should be sociable don't let it get in the way of the important parts of your immediate preparation routine. Keep drinking and eating what you had planned, make sure that everything on your bike is working, and give yourself adequate warm up time. Arriving on the startline having a soft tyre, cold, or no race food in your pockets is not a good situation. Have a plan for the race. Even though this is bike racing and it incredibly is unpredictable, have a plan for your own performance. Are you going to be aggressive from the gun? Are you going to follow the wheels for a while? Or are you going to gamble on a sprint finish? Whatever your plan is, keep focussed on it. Nervous energy has a way for making people ride like lunatics, so having a plan will keep you as calm as possible in the most hectic of situations. Yes it may have to change if half the bunch are going up the road, or the race is splitting up, but having something to focus on avoids you panicking during critical moments of the race. This plan should also include when to eat and drink. Nutrition often gets lost in the chaos of racing so a set eating and drinking plan that suits you will ensure you don't get the dreaded knock which cripple your performance. After the race is time to enjoy a coffee and cake at the prizegiving with your fellow riders. You've raced hard (whether you got a result or not is irrelevant at this point), and you deserve to relax. Now is not the time to analyse and discuss your performance in detail with others. Sure we let each other know our version of the race and were we happy or not, but detailed performance analysis is for you and your coach to discuss. Sometimes we forget to celebrate the satisfaction of completing the race, it often gets lost the overall performance analysis, even though it is this satisfaction that keeps us racing! Go home and do more relaxing. Race day is not the day for performance analysis-leave that for Monday(remember you're never as good as you think you are when you get a result, but you're never as bad as you think you are when you don't). Have a beer or a glass of wine or two, a nice dinner, and bask in the satisfaction that you rode your bike faster than most people will ever do. You may have seen our blog on how to prepare for a cx race (if not you can find it here: race-preparation-cx-style.html), and we will have a road specific blog on race preparation as the season approaches.
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St.Finbarrs Cycling ClubEst. 1938 Archives
October 2017
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