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This weekend's epic Killington edition has come and gone, but the memories (and soreness) remain. Still healing a broken foot, I unfortunately was unable to race this weekend. I was however able to focus all of my time and effort into race-day coaching, something I usually only get to do for part of the day as I am usually racing myself. I'd like to first give a shoutout to all of our athletes who raced everything from the Trail, Sprint, Beast, and Ultra. Whether they crossed the line and accomplished their goals or not, you all put on impressive performances! Some highlights: Susan, top 10 Elite (Beast, Sprint) Catharine, 2nd place Age Group (Beast) Ashley, 3rd place Age Group (10k Trail) *Special shoutout to Sean for taking on the Ultra and making it further than he ever has before (despite some layoffs due to injuries following a marathon). Looking forward to working with him towards the 2023 Killington Ultra!
This weekend gave me the chance to coach our athletes through the roller coaster highs and lows that is obstacle course racing and after having many conversations with our athletes post-race, I thought it would be a good idea to summarize the takeaways from this weekend so that other athlete's may also be able to self reflect on their performances and arrive at their next race in better physical and mental shape.
BE PREPARED FOR ANYTHING
A common theme overheard this weekend was that many athletes felt "the mountain won," or that they weren't fully prepared for the demands of the race and/or terrain. In a sport where anything is possible and things can change drastically between different venues, this is a good reminder to all that we must be prepared for anything on race day. For example, when working on hills, it is important that we try and spend time on a variety of terrain from runnable uphills to insanely steep uphills that you have no choice to power hike or crawl in order to ascend. Both types of inclines require different movement mechanics and tax the body differently, so we consistently should try and get a bit of both in our training in order to develop those skills. This principle goes for heavy carries as well (Killington sandbag carry, anyone?). This weekend's sandbag carry was absolutely insane to witness. Some athletes powered through, others were broken by it and took 10-15 minutes (or more) to complete it. Sometimes we can get comfortable with the carry lengths as they can often be pretty standard. In Canada we have gotten used to carries of conservative distances, or carries that have even been downright short (Blue Mountain 2021 bucket carry was under 45 seconds for elites), so this is another reminder that we need to be ready for anything: short/fast carries, short/steep carries, and insanely long AND steep carries. It's easier to be prepared for a Killington-type sandbag carry and arrive on race day to find a conservative, short carry that will only take 2-3 minutes than be prepared for the inverse.
BAD DAYS HAPPEN TO EVERYONE
Some athletes put months of preparation into this race and feel it didn't go the way it was supposed to. The truth is that bad days happen to everyone (even the greats of the sport). The frustrating thing is we never know when these bad days might happen. You can have the greatest build-up to a race, the best taper, and you might still feel off on race day (or in my case, roll your ankle and break your foot 48 hours before the North American Championships). Remember: bad days don't define us as athletes. The important thing is to be able to objectively look at our experience, see what went wrong, and find at least one positive takeaway (see more on that below). You're allowed to be frustrated by a bad day but whether you move forward from it in a useful way is up to you. You can choose to focus solely on the negative, or you can look at your performance objectively, without emotion, to determine what went wrong and work to correct it for the future.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Here are two steps you can take to make your race weekend an step in the right direction: 1) Race Reports: Our biggest piece of advice to athletes is to write a race report (see our blog post "How to improve after a race" by clicking here). This doesn't have to be anything too formal on Word (although it can be), it can simply be something short and concise written on your phone. In this report you will want to take note of: -The race (venue, distance, date) -Positive takeaways (strengths, things you did well) -Negative takeaways (weaknesses, things that need improvement) -What you will do to attack these weaknesses in training Writing a race report will give you an objective idea of how to improve for your next event.
2) Commit to improvement: it can be hard to "get back on the horse" after a tough race, but after allowing yourself 24-48 hours to be upset it's time to move forward. This is where you can either work on your own to improve long term (based on your race report), or perhaps you realize that you need more help to get the most out of your training and put all the puzzle pieces together so you hire a coach. Having a coach will take the stress off of your shoulders as you will no longer need to worry about each macro phase of training, peaking, tapering, or what to do on any given day. Simply wake up, check your plan, get to training. *3) Bonus-Don't reinvent the wheel: if you had the performance of your life, don't overcomplicate things and try and completely change your training approach. Clearly what you are doing is working. I still recommend writing a brief race report to have a hard copy of your strengths and weaknesses from the event in order to guide upcoming training adjustments, but don't feel the need to overhaul your entire programming.
Want help conquering Killington (or another race)? Click the link below to check out our 1 on 1 personalized running and OCR training plans and let us help take you to the next level!
Have questions about our coaching services and what we can do to help you reach your goals? Send us an email: outlawocr@gmail.com.
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