Hi Reader,

You want to run those races you have signed up for at your best (I know you say you just want to finish!!). Have you ever wondered how to plan your racing year to achieve this? I have you covered below with a section on planning ahead.

I am also going to touch on the Olympics with lessons we can learn from the pros and a comment about AI following my previous email.

Planning Ahead

As we crawl out of winter here in Aus, it is a good time to start planning for the coming year and any races you are running. I wrote a piece for Trail Run Magazine about how to approach this last year and it can be read in full here - "Setting out the Training Year." and summarised below.

This piece dives into planning your racing year after a period of disruptions in schedules. It talks about figuring out why you love racing and which races matter most to you. The idea is to plan your training around these races so that it's fun and aligns with what you're aiming for.

It suggests splitting races into three categories: A, B, and C. A races are your big deals, where you put most of your training focus. B races are like practice runs for your A races, where you test out stuff like pacing or new gear. C races are more like part of your training or just for fun.

When it comes to planning, it's all about starting from your main A race and working backward. You want to focus on the specific things you need for that race closer to the date, like if it's a hilly trail race, practice those hills and technical bits nearer the event. And work on your weaknesses earlier in your training blocks.

The advice at the end is to start planning and training ASAP. Don’t wait for some future date to kick things off. The earlier you start, the better and more fun your race day will be, no matter when it's scheduled.

Olympics

I have been putting regular comments and lessons learnt on my social media pages. Covering varying subjects as they pop up in the Olympics and how we can relate them to our training and racing. There is a lot of sport going on and a lot we can learn from the Pros over in France. Interesting they don't always get it right!

​​

I've briefly covered subjects touching on:

• Race pacing from the Men's Triathlon and how it applies
• ​Process goals over outcome goals - I'll write on this more next time​
• ​Race week de-stressing for the race

Head over there for these and plenty of other tips.

Comments AI

I wrote previously on AI and how it is ineffective in providing quality training plans at this stage. I do however believe AI at some point will be used by coaches, (data analytics, patterns, predictions) with the right learning, it's just not there yet. Plus its never going to replace those person-to-person conversations and soft skills that a good coach should possess.

Time to get signed up for your next race and start training!

Cheers,

Ash