Racing is never easy
The spring racing season is getting started! Did you get in a good winter of training? Are you looking forward to flying through your races this spring?
Just be careful to set your expectations correctly.
…Racing
Don’t stress about conditions – just race
I recently saw an article on how weather conditions affect your racing and what conditions are generally ideal for different distance races. Interesting but how does this help you?
I also was talking with my daughter about the course for an upcoming cross country race she’s running. It starts with a quite challenging hill. She was concerned about this but I reminded her that everyone in the race has to go up the same hill.
…Don’t charge the hill
In a recent cross country race, my daughter said a coach who has been working with a couple of her friends told her to charge the hill. I’m going to assume he said that because it was with about 400 meters to go and, regardless of the hill, it was just time to go.
If not, I found a point in which I disagree with this coach who my daughter says sounds just like me because we’re always saying the same thing.
…Set reasonable race day expectations
Racing is back! Well, it has been for a while. Some people were even finding races last year. However, this is the first spring or fall racing season in two years where it seems like most races will be back in some version of their normal format. So many of us may find ourselves at least somewhat out of practice.
What should you do about that? Well, if you haven’t raced in a long time, you probably have forgotten how hard race day really is. Even if you have raced more recently, you may go into a goal race thinking that you’re fit, tapered, and this is going to be easy.
Don’t do that.
…Difficult race day? Focus on competing
This past weekend, both my daughter and I ran races. We both had in mind times we thought we could hit and wanted to target. However, as race day neared, it became clear that the conditions were going to be challenging. Because of that, I repeatedly reminded both of us that we shouldn’t worry about our times. Just compete.
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