The Race Day Playbook To Perform Like A Pro

And know that when those things happen, you just get through them. And that's just this. It's just this funny cycle of motivation that we're all going through and it messes up when we expect ourselves to be motivated all the time. That's not what training is about. Training is about training anyway and getting through the session as best you can, regardless of how motivated you're feeling. And I just have found we've been having really good, interesting conversations with people about it. It's a really good point for athletes to remember. This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivelo Coaching, Jarrett Donnelly. When it comes to the morning of your race, how prepared do you feel? Are you ready to nail your best performance? In this episode, we reveal our ultimate race day playbook. We share our tips for preparing your body and mind for peak performance and hopefully a pb. Because when it comes to race day, it's almost impossible not to feel over stimulated by everything around you. Races and events are high energy. It's important, it's important not to psych yourself out from everything that's happening, from equipment checklists to warmup routines, to nutrition strategy, as well as your actual race strategy and mindset. In this episode, we're covering everything you need to know to prepare for your race properly. Dad, welcome to the episode. Let's start with our normal segment. What are you grateful for?

Thanks, Jordan. It is an interesting topic we've got today. There's a lot to dig into. Dive, dive into here. And my gratitude is a, it's a, it's one that most people have experienced over the journey and that's getting a new bike. It's always a great day, isn't it, when you, when you have a new bike that you've picked up from the bike shop. And you know our relationship with Giant Australia, most people would be familiar with it. We just been a long time partner.

And main sponsor of the podcast.

Main sponsor of the podcast. And look, especially when we're heading to Belgium pretty much in the next week or so for the Spring Classics, which is very exciting and I'm grateful for that too. That's two gratitudes in one day. But I'm really looking forward to riding a bike that's almost set up better for the Spring Classics for the cobbles than the previous bikes that I've ridden at the Spring Classic. So I'm quite excited to be on a better bike this time around and I'm interested to see what difference it makes to riding a bike that's not really set up for Spring Classics. And we all see what the pro riders do and how they trick their bikes up to suit the conditions of whether it's Roubaix or Flanders or any of the Spring Classics that have got cobbles on it, it is a different setup. So I'm quite looking forward to riding a bike that's actually possibly not going to cause my hands to be blistered for. For two weeks after the event because, you know, the vibrations on your hands, you know, on a bike that's very rigid would be different to a bike that's got a little bit more give in it, I think. So I'm quite grateful for that from Giant Australia. So thank you and, yeah, look forward to testing it out in Belgium in a week or two.

What always surprises me is how the bikes actually survive, because when you're riding on those cobbles, it feels like there's literally a jackhammer going into the frame and you just think this bike is going to break it any second and it just doesn't. And they're quite robust, so it's very impressive.

I've got to say, Joy, before you go into your gratitude, is when I very first hit the cobbles and, and it was, I don't know, six or seven years ago when we first went over there in 2016 and we were coming around the corner and this was my first landing on a cobble, I could not believe how violent the bike was, was just getting banged around and I thought, this bike is not going to last 10 meters. And, and I just, I was in at how violent the, the actual ride was. And of course I had the wrong bike. I had my tires too tight and so doing lots of things wrong, but geez, it was such a shock to my system and how, you know, you know, bloody violence is the only word that I can explain how, how it felt when I first hit that first set of cobbles. And you were probably the same. I was telling you, I was warning you, that's what's going to happen. And yeah, yeah, you can warm me.

As much as you like and it still doesn't prepare you.

That's right.

My quick gratitude is actually for our family dog, Millie, because you went away up north to see the new grandson of the family last week and I went home and picked up the dog and I've been looking out for the dog since then. And it's just been really nice to have Millie around the house and take her for walks and she's a very friendly dog and everyone loves to say hi and she loves everyone. So grateful to have had her for the week. What's caught my attention is. Oh, you actually go first. What has caught your attention, dad?

Yeah, funny. Whilst I was up in the Sunshine coast in Australia, in Queensland, that's really, really identified to me. They've got such high humidity at the moment and I'm very not used to that. And my Garmin was telling me I was 2% heat acclimatized, which is a bit, a bit unnerving really. Anyway, I went out for, you know, I was there for 10 or 12 days and the second last day it was 100% humidity and it was 34 degrees. And it happened to be the same day as the Mooloolaba Triathlon actually on the Sunday and I was out with your brother Liam and I just, it just hit home to me, you know, how we can underestimate the impact of heat and trying to train or race in the heat and we just, we just underestimate how, how we should be adjusting according to the heat. And, you know, what do I mean by that? I mean, if you want to ride, for example, 200 watts and you're in the Mooloolaba triathlon, we were only doing zone two, so it was quite straightforward. But you know, to give you an example, my zone 2 power should be somewhere between 180 watts and 220 watts. And that should give me 135 heart rate because I've tested that at a max VO2 test. So I know what my zone 2 heart rate is. And literally 160 watts was giving me 135 heart rate, which is way below zone 2. So I had to adjust and I was still getting the training effect. My heart rate was where, you know, at the top of the range. It's just that the power had to be dropped back. And that's an example of when I was talking to some of the athletes who'd done the Mooloolaba race. They were saying that in a 10k run, they've never seen so many people walking in a, in an Olympic distance because they hadn't adjusted to the heat. And if you're expecting to run 6 minute K pace and it's, you know, those conditions are horrendous, you should adjust to 610 or 615 or wherever your threshold heart rate is, is taking you to and that's where heart rate is really helpful as a metric. And you know, it's not the be all and end all, but it can be used on conditions where you actually need to pay attention to. So the pace you're running at will be dictated to by your heart rate. Whereas normally if the temperature is absolutely normal, you could, you could rely on the pace to be the guide and the heart rate will be whatever it is. But if you try and run 6 minute K pace and your heart rate's 10 beats higher, you're going to struggle at some point in that run. So yeah, that's what caught my attention. And yeah, just underestimating, you know, we all know and talk about it, but do people, people actually react and do something about it? That's what I'm, I'm trying to get the message home is, you know, yeah, we all know that, you know, it's hard to train or race in the heat, but what adjustments are you making?

That's a really great point. And we, we do, yeah, we do know it, but we still get shocked when it actually happens. And like you said, you, you just, you forget and you, you expect yourself to be able to go normally and that's the worst case scenario in a race when you are expecting to go to the exact same pace that you would do not in the heat and you get the shock of your life. And really adjusting those expectations is absolutely key. One thing I want to bring up is that we've been having a lot of discussions lately and it does come from a few of the discussions we've been having on the podcast, but we've been talking to ourselves and other athletes around motivation and cycles of motivation. And again, Lockie Morton, really, we had a great discussion with him about this on the podcast where he was talking about where in his career he'd lost motivation and where he's found it again and keeps finding or reminding himself where he's love for the sport actually is. And I was really thinking about motivation on a, on a macro level right down to a micro level. And really we all experience, we just had after the episode, I had so many athletes say to me, they resonated with that so much. You know, where they go through periods where they're just totally not motivated to ride their bike and the race goal just isn't doing it for them anymore and they go back to just riding their bike for fun and just going for an enjoyable coffee rides or social rides that gets that spark back a little bit and they go through a Period of that. And then they pick a race goal again, and then they get super motivated. And I think understanding this cycle and understanding yourself is really important. And it does start at a macro level and go down to a micro level. And what I mean by that is I feel like you can go through a motivation cycle within a single session. At the start of the session, you might be feeling pretty tired that day. You've had a stressful day, work's been busy. That whole week might have been busy. There might be a lot going on, extra in your life. And so that actual session seems pretty tough. And then once you warm up and you start getting into it, you find that kind of driving motivation again and you feel good and you start to feel a bit better and the endorphins are coming in, and then you do the session and you feel really good. And by the end, you feel great, you're stoked that you did it. As always, it's a really satisfied and accomplished feeling. And just in that one session, you've gone through a full cycle of motivation. And then throughout the week, that can happen. You can have a pretty good start to the week, but by Thursday or Friday, once again, you might have had a long week at work. You might be feeling very tired from the last few weeks of training. You get to Thursday, Friday or Saturday, and you're just not feeling that motivated. And you just try, and the goal is just to try and get through those sessions, just get them done, you don't have to absolutely smash them. And then by Sunday, you've ticked off another good week of training and you've come full circle again and you're ready for another week. And so once again, that cycle has come up and down through an entire week. And then that relates to a block of training where, in our example, we do two weeks on, one week off generally, or three weeks on, one week off. You might go through the first couple of weeks, you're a little bit fresh, you've come off a recovery week and you're flying, you're feeling really good. But by week two or week three, you're at the end of two or three weeks of really hard training and you're really struggling for that motivation again and again. The goal is just to get through those sessions and to get through that period and you might get to the end of it, get to the recovery week, and you're feeling fresh again and that motivation is back. And I'm just going to keep going with this, but it applies to a total block of training where You've done a full 12 week block or you've done a full 16 weeks towards your race. And in that whole period, you're going to be going through these constant cycles of motivation up and down. And a lot of people get to their race, finish their race, and they're just as mentally exhausted as they are physically because they've spent 12, 16, 20 weeks so committed to a program and it's where you really need one or two weeks off and you really need to freshen up and refresh your goals and refresh your mindset so that you're not constantly trying to achieve this high level of motivation and ending up burning yourself out. And I think my main point here is when you understand that these cycles happen per training session, per day, per week, per block, per entire training program, you can just embrace it and not expect yourself to feel totally motivated all the time and know that when those things happen, you just get through them. And that's just this, it's just this funny cycle of motivation that we're all going through and it messes up when we expect ourselves to be motivated all the time. That's not what training is about. Training is about training anyway and getting through the session as best you can, regardless of how motivated you're feeling. And I just have found we've been having really good, interesting conversations with people about it. It's a really good point for athletes to remember.

Yeah, I think you've said a really, a lot of really positive things about the, the year and bringing it down to the day, into the session as a, as a, a small package compared to the whole thing. And look, one of the examples I can give you is, you know, the guys who have signed up to go to Belgium with us, you know, there's 11 riders and, and everybody knows that when we get to Belgium, you're going to need to have some level of fitness. And not all 11 riders that we're going to go away with will arrive on, on our first day's ride with the same level of fitness. But, but everybody knows that that's been a trigger. And, and that's the point I want to make. You have to find triggers whether it's in the one session you're doing or whether you're aiming for an event or a trip, like we're doing with Belgium, to make sure that you arrive for the day's session or the week or the block or the year where you're going to be able to enjoy the actual event or trip or holiday training camp, whatever it Is main session you just have to do all these things in your mind to, to. And I use the word trick. You trick yourself into preparing and the level of your excitement. And we call that word motivation. That's pretty much what it is. Are you excited to train today or you just zero excitement. And you've got to use some sort of strategies to actually get your mind to concentrate on what you're trying to do for the, for the end goal. And the end goal might be that one session you're talking about is can I do 5 by 5 minute efforts all in the right zone. And so what are the tricks that I would try to do? I would look at what I did last week and say, okay, here's my target that I did last week. Can I match that or am I too tired to match that? Can I just get underneath that? So they're little strategies that you're using to get the excitement level up or down. And once you start the session then you've got a clear understanding of my legs aren't good today. 245 watts that I did last week five times. There's no way I'm doing that. So I'm going to try and do 240. So instantly you're having a discussion about to yourself about how you're coping in the middle of the session almost and rearranging your mindset to okay, I'll just try and do all five efforts at 240. And then after the second effort you're going to go one or two ways. 240 is going to be comfortable and you can go back to 242 or 245 or you're going to go three ways. Sorry, you're going to go, this is all I can do. I'll stay at 240 the whole way or I'm going to fall back to 235. 230. And so they're just little examples of how you can just manipulate things in your mind and listen to your body. And therefore you're going to have a level of motivation or arousal that's going to be really related to your feeling. And the feelings create bad motivation and extremely good motivation. And you know, we've got the bell curve of over arousal to under arousal where we want to find somewhere in, you know, on the way up and to the top and on the way down. So there's going to be so many things that are going to contribute to how we're feeling on any given day, on any given week on Any given block and any given year there'll be periods where some years you just can't be stuffed about doing it. But you know that if you keep doing something, you'll still have a good level of fitness six months later. And you're not starting from zero, you're starting from 50% fitness. And so, you know, there's another strategy that, you know, I don't feel like really training hard for the next three months, but I know that in three months time I might feel differently. And if I just keep something going with the fitness, I'm not going to start from zero. And you know, they're examples of what can happen over people's cycles of their, of their recreation, whether it's a marathon runner or you know, a long distance swimmer or a triathlete or a cyclist who, time trialer. You know, you've got, you've got all these different sports where you have periods where you're not going to feel it like you are feeling it at some particular stages of your life. And so the big key thing that I think that we don't do well is we don't think the big picture all the time. So if we, if we concentrate on the stepping stones of what can I do each day to just keep that ticking along rather than thinking my next event's not for 11 months, I don't need to do anything, you know, in the next four weeks, whereas that's the wrong way to think about it. If I just keep ticking along really easy in the next four weeks and there's no hard stuff, I'm actually going to be better off in 11 months time. And that's what I'm trying to, I'm trying to get that message across of, you know, if you think of big picture then the small stepping stones along the way, that's easy to motivate yourself. All I've got to do today is go for a 30 minute run rather than this block of training. I've got seven hill repeats, I've got two sessions where it's intervals, I've got three sessions where it's this. If you keep thinking too big then you're going to be struggling with the day to day. So have the big picture as the end result rather than I can't do the training because the sessions or the main event's too far away. And all I need to do is concentrate on the day to day. So I think that point you make is really, really a good one. And, and it's something that if we can really get in our heads that there will be good and bad periods along the journey. And as long as you understand that that's what's going to happen, you just need to have strategies that are going to, that are going to enable you to get through each day and each session.

Totally agree. Let's get into the topic of today and that is actually getting to race day and crushing your entire race day strategy. Because when you get to race day, you wake up, you're filled with a total range of emotions. Excitement, nervousness, anxiousness, motivation, as we've just spoken about, a drive to do well, a hope that all your preparation has been good enough, anticipation of the result you're going to get. And there's so much involved. And on the actual day, we want to go through our blueprint of how to get the most out of the day and how to make sure that you're ticking off the things necessary to set yourself up for success. So before we get into the actual day, there's a few things that you have to make sure you've done before before you get to the day. And that's. But that's. These are the things that you, we assume you do well, but we're not going to cover, which includes pre race testing to find your race day goal numbers to stick to the taper phase, which is very important and slightly different for everyone. And of course, good preparation as a whole. You've done a good training program that's specific to the event, you've had good preparation the days prior, you've had good sleep for a few days, you had good nutrition, you fueled up and then when it's time to wake up on race day, I guess, dad, take us through how you start preparing as soon as you wake up on race day. How do we make sure that we start, start off on the right foot and do everything we need to set ourselves up for success.

Yeah, I suppose the checklist is the key, isn't it? If you know there's a lot of hap. A lot of things have to happen the day before. There's no doubt in my mind that, that it's no good waking up and then just jumping into action. I think you need to go to bed calm, that you've got everything that you need to race with the next day all sorted and, and we can list off 50 things in that checklist. You know, bike, helmet, Garmin, charged batteries charged on your bike. There's so many batteries on a bike nowadays with the gears and with a power meter and with your actual bike. Computer, your watch, your goggles. If you're a triathlete, you know, making sure you don't leave anything at home, getting to the, getting to the race with one wheel, it's still sitting at home on the driveway that you'd forgot to put in the car when you, when you were packing the bike. You know, forgetting your shoes, forgetting your helmet, all those things, they have to be done the night before so you can go to sleep comfortably knowing that all you've got to think about is I need to get up at this particular time and work backwards from your start time. And I'm a big believer in getting there way too early. I would so much be rather be there early than panic because the drive and the parking, don't underestimate how that can flip your whole morning if the drive takes longer and there's more traffic and then when you get there, there's nowhere to park and instead of getting there, you know, you've allowed half an hour to get, get yourself into the bike compound and get everything ready. Now you've got four minutes because you haven't been able to park properly. So they're things you want to eliminate. And obviously the earlier you get there, the more parks that are available and you know, if you're lucky enough to get accomm that's actually on the circuit that is such a game changer where you can just walk out your door and walk to transition and you know, there's so many. Well, we just went to Huskisson and in New South Wales and you know, when we book accommodation we try to get it as close to the, to the transition area as possible so that you're eliminating parking. And these are things that, they're part of preparation, aren't they? That, that you need to get right. It doesn't, it doesn't have any effect on your actual competition performance, but it does have an effect because creates more anxiety and I, I have that butterfly feeling in my stomach enough about the race that I'm going to do without. I can't get to transition in time. Running out of time. My stomach is just, I'm feeling sick because I've left too late. Not enough time to check my tires and get the nutrition and put my towel out properly. And these are all the things that you really need to not be panicking about because there's enough energy being wasted already with the thoughts about what's going to happen with your actual race itself. So try to eliminate the anxiety and the energy expenditure because the more the adrenaline is flowing, the more fuel you're burning before you even start. So, you know, don't underestimate how influential that is. And it reminds me, since I've started using my OURA ring again, my HRV reading when I get to race day, my HRV always tells me, on race day, don't do any exercise today. Your anxiety levels or your fatigue levels are through the roof. Your readiness score is as low as possible. And I know that I'm ready to race well that day because that's, you know, I don't know how it's doing it, but it's picking up my anxiety, my adrenaline, my stress levels from wanting to perform well on the day. And I don't feel like I've got those high stress levels. But every time I come to a race day, my OURA ring reads the same. And in hindsight, I perform well. So I'm not listening to the OURA ring to tell me not to race today because I know that I do race well. It's just that, you know, there must be some stress levels being measured. You know, HRV is the time between each heartbeat. So obviously that adrenaline is affecting my HRV number to a degree where it's telling me that I shouldn't be doing anything. So don't underestimate how important the pre event details that you have to tick off will have an effect on your energy expenditure and your anxiety and adrenaline rush.

I guess the main point there is that like you're saying, you're already in a heightened state, adrenaline wise, stress wise. You really want to minimize how much you add to that by being disorganized. And it should be said that everything doesn't have to go perfect for you to race well, because if you get into that mindset, you start getting into way too many superstitions where if something goes wrong that day, suddenly you don't believe you can race well. And that's not true. And we've heard of plenty of athletes having really bad preparation, something that was completely out of control, made them super late for a race or something. You can still perform well in that regard, but it's ideal just to not be in that position, be totally prepared, be totally calm, not waste any more energy, and give yourself the best chance of getting to the start line in an optimal state of arousal. Not completely over aroused and not under aroused either. But it does start with the checklist that we've spoken about a lot. And there's the equipment checklist. We'll break it down to two. There's the Equipment checklist and the timing checklist. And we've said this before, we encourage you to actually have a physical checklist. And it seems a little bit anal, it seems a little bit type A personality. But to have a physical checklist either written down, handwritten, or you can have it in your phone. I use the Notes app, and it's got a little checkbox. And you physically don't tick an item off until it is packed in your car or packed in your bag, because it's so easy to, like you said, say that you've got it, but then you've left it on the stairs or something next to the driveway, or you've left it on the bench because you mentally said you had it, but you hadn't actually packed it yet. So, you know, going through the process of physically ticking things off, it's like that NASA principle. You could almost get your partner or someone that you're with or someone that you're racing with to check for you that you've packed all this stuff. Again, that's getting really extreme. But that would be how to make sure that nothing is ever left behind. And then timing wise, it's the exact same thing. It's writing everything out to the minute and allowing more time than necessary. So if you say it's going to take 20 minutes to get there, you might as well allow 30 or 35 minutes, just in case there's a bit of bad traffic, you know, and if it's going to take you 15 minutes to park, allow 30. And all these little things come up. On race day morning, once you get to the event is how long it takes you to walk there. There might be a line at registration that you weren't anticipating. You're not going to walk straight to the desk and get your number. There might be so many people that Instead of taking four minutes, it takes 15. You might have to go to the toilet, and you're only allowed five minutes for that. But instead, again, there's a big line, which happens a lot at big events, where you're waiting in line for the toilet for 20, 25 minutes. And that is a stressful thing to go through. So having these two checklists is absolutely key. So once you get to the. I'll go on, Ned.

Yeah, I'm totally in agreements with you. And I always, you know, you talked about the NASA example, but, you know, any of the pilots who have flown 200,000 hours, which is different to a NASA pilot who's probably only been up in space two or three times, but you know, someone who's flown a plane, they just don't jump in the plane and say, let's go. They have to go through a checklist, which they've done. You know, if they're flown 50, 50,000 times, they don't take that for granted. They know everything that they need to do, but they still tick off the checklist. So we shouldn't be any different. And that's key.

Yeah. So you get to the event and what do you do from there? How do you make sure that once you arrive to the start line, that you're really getting yourself as prepared as possible physically and mentally for the race?

Well, obviously, the first thing you've got to do is make sure. And some events are quite different to each other. Some events you have to have your bike in registration overnight. Some events you bring your bike on the day. So if you're in the second situation where you're bringing your bike with you, you've got to get your little area all organized and go and find where your bike is going to be racked and get your equipment all set out nice and neatly with your towel and your shoes. If they're on the bike with an elastic band or if they're on the ground, you're going to put them on your hel and your sunglasses and your gels and, you know, making sure that you then stand back and see, where is my bike racked? What identifying features can I know that when I come out of the water that I can just go straight to my row and, you know, making sure most of the rows are numbered. So if I'm on row 18 and I'm halfway down, I just remember at Huskinson, I. There was. My rack was parked right at the edge of the bike compound and there was a tree. So as I was coming from the swim up this long, it was, you know, literally 70 meters long, this bike rack. And I was just running towards that tree because I knew my bike was underneath it. And I didn't waste another 10 seconds worrying about where my bike was. Just little things like that are going to take notice of where you are and then making sure that you have either asked someone or talked to someone or gone and found out where the direction is that you go from. From the B. Grabbing your bike out of transition, you don't grab your bike and turn the wrong way. You know, you're clear in your mind that this is the direction I have to go. There's the bike exit. And then, you know, that's the example of the bike and then the run's the same, you know, coming back in off the bike, you know, there's the tree, there's my bike's racked, get everything off. And then where, which direction do I go for the run exit and knowing where the finish line is. And if you're in an age group competition where you, you know, you're trying to do a PB or you're trying to actually get on the podium, you know, not, not, not knowing that there's only 400 meters left instead of, you know, 40 meters, you know, that can make a difference to how much effort you put in in that last section of the run. If you're in that state where you're still running well, you know, you want to know where the finish line is exactly so that you can measure your effort from 2k out, a k out and 500 meters out. You know, that can be the difference. You know, I've seen many events being lost by 2, 3, 4, 5 seconds. So it is important to know where the finish is. And of course the swim start, which I missed at the start is, if we're talking about triathlon here, the swim start is really crucially important to know which direction you're swimming, how many laps it is, where the marker buoys are, and having a real understanding of when your actual wave goes in terms of the timing so that you can do your warm up, which we'll talk about in a minute. But, but you need to understand all those things. And that's no different to a marathon runner going to a marathon race or a cyclist going to a time trial or to a road race or a crit race. You've, you've got to have a time where your event starts and work backwards so that you're arriving at the start line. And the example would be an individual time trial where you have to go up onto a ramp. You need to be there warmed up to the minute. So you should allow yourself maximum five minutes from the end of your warm up to standing there ready to go onto the start of the time trial ramp. That's just an example. So getting the warm up timing and actually all the equipment, information and understanding of what is the requirements of the actual race logistics. They're all things that if you get that clear in your mind in your warmup, you're just concentrating on your warmup, you're not concentrating on, oh, do I have to be back there? You know that I, I've got 25 minutes and you can warm up properly concentrating on your pedaling concentrating on your breathing, concentrating on if you're doing a run, warm up, you know, what pace you're running at, you know, and the jog back, you're concentrating on all those things that aren't going to be distracted by. I don't know if I've got enough time. I'm, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm confused as to what I should be doing next and, and having that relaxed calmness. It all comes from the preparation and getting all these things really down pat. And the more times you do this in, in, in racing, the better you'll be for your A race. So that is one of the things we talk about is doing some other races or training brick sessions where, you know, for example we have some time trial races here in Melbourne where I run them as just a private race. There's no road closure or anything down at Beach Road. And, and I'm giving people day before the start times. I'm saying, Jordan, your start time 6:30am, my start time 6:31, someone else's start time 6:32. And I still see people not getting to the start line in this practice race at the right time or getting there with a two minute warm up. And that's why you should be practicing this stuff in training and using other races to get things down pat. And people say to me, why do you want me to do this race? I'm saying, well I want you to do this race for learning how to execute the race. That's first and foremost and secondly to get used to the strategies of the night before. The meal, the night before, the packing. The checklist and the getting up of the morning in time and the travel and everything it takes to get yourself ready for the start of the race, they're just as important as actually the execution of the day.

Yeah, that is the importance of the checklist that you have on race day, the logistical checklist for the equipment and things. It shouldn't be a new checklist for race day, it should be a previously used one that you know works because then it's, it's been done before and it was everything that you needed. And maybe for this specific race you have to add some things into it that are new for this race but it should be a well established checklist that you've used before. The timing one might be a little bit different. You can use an old one based on how long things take you, but the start time of races, how long it takes to get there and everything will be different per race. And depending on your accommodation, where you park, how you get there, et cetera. But the beauty is, as you said before, studying the areas of start line, finish line transitions, if it's a triathlon or a, if it's a pure running race or cycling race, where the starting ramp is and where you can and can't go is really important. And they always provide this information in the course maps. They always give a course kind of briefing PDF that's sent out in email and that shows you where registration is and where the start line is and most importantly, where the road closures are. So you should be looking at those and then once you get there, as you said, matching up what you've seen on the map, which you should have studied to what's actually there. Because sometimes when you're looking on the map, especially for transitions in and out, the directions that you thought it was look a little bit different in real life. So you really do have to figure out, okay, where exactly am I going? And it's the same thing for a warmup and that's figuring out where the road closures are. So where can I actually ride my bike if I'm going to do a ride warm up, where can I go for a run if I'm going to do a run warm up, where abouts the toilets? And unfortunately, these are all logistical things that aren't not much to do with your race, but are so important to get you ready for your race. And you just want to take all the thinking out of it and you just want that to be not much energy spent on that. You're just following your checklist, you're following your timing list, all the information you've seen before, so that once you start your warmup, you could really focus on the most important thing, which is getting your body ready for the race. And then start mentally thinking about the race, not thinking about everything else that's going on. Because as we said, races and events have so much excitement around them. There's so many fit people around, people are doing their own warmups, their own setting up their own bike. You know, you might be looking around at someone else racking their bike and they have a really fancy bike, they're racking it a different way to you. You're at a running race and some people have really fancy shoes. You always use the fit example, People look really fit and you think, oh, I don't look as fit as them. And you just want all of that out of your mind and you want to get to the start of your warmup and be able to focus on your race. So I guess what's your advice to athletes once they start their warm up? What kind of mental processes do you want them to start going through?

Yeah, I suppose we're just trying to eliminate all the distractions now. Once you've done all the, the logistics, which is what we spent the last 10 minutes talking about, that's all done now. Now you can concentrate on preparing your body and your mind for the task at hand. And it's really important that this is not the time to have a chat to someone you haven't seen for a while. You know, you have to be bit single minded here. The time for chatting is before that during the setup process when you have, you're just, you know, in the compound and transition area where whatever's happening but, but on the time when you're trying to warm your body up, you actually need to get your mind in tune with what's going to happen once that warm up's finished. And I'm talking about doing the warmup properly and not going through the motions. So get your mind in tune with what the task is. And I need to be ready. And we've got so many examples of people who aren't ready for the race and they're spending the first five or 10 minutes of the race getting their body to a ready race phase. Whereas if you do your warm up preparation right the minute you start the timer on your watch, whether you're a runner or a rider or a triathlete swimming, you're actually ready to race at the pace you want to and not spending a whole chunk of the actual event getting your body up to speed. So this warm up is quite crucial to the actual event and I've got that many examples of people who've done no warm up and then really battled early on in the event and then started to feel their legs halfway through. And it could be because they've got huge fatigue coming into the event or it could be because their warm up has been crap. We don't actually know the real reason, but predominantly I would get. Most people who have not performed well have had a very poor warm up and ironically the people who have done well in the warm up don't seem to have that bad a start to their race. They hit their numbers straight away and they may fade later on if they're not, you know, if they're too fatigued from training up into the event or they're not tapered well enough. But that's a different scenario. So we really might want to make sure that your mind and your body is ready to go when it really matters. And that's when the time starts of whatever event you're doing.

Yeah, spot on. And I guess from here let's say you do your warm up, which you would have practiced in training many times and practice races, you're getting your mind switched on, you're starting to visualize the race, how it's going to pan out. This is where your words of wisdom are really important. And I've heard you give what feels like thousands of pre race pep talks. Now, what are the key things that you're trying to remind an athlete of that when they get to this point and they're somewhere between the last five, 10 or 15 minutes before the race, in that final part of the warmup phase. What do you want in their head that you've reminded them of the day before you've done the pre race pep talk. What are the key things that you want the athlete focusing on?

The first thing is I want them to be that relaxed that they know that they've got a, you know, a really good plan in place. And you know, if you're standing on the start line of a 1500 meter track event or on the beach for a, for a half ironman or Olympic distance or, you know, or a marathon runner or a cyclist who's standing there, you want to have a calmness about what's going to happen next. And then your sole goal is to concentrate on the strategies that are required from that event. That's what you should be thinking about is, you know, you've seen a skier in, in the, in the Olympics who's about to do a jump and they're standing there waiting for the jump and they're going through the routine, I'm going to do that, that, that, that in their mind they're just actually running over the routine of, of their, their tuck, their extension, their triple, triple back, you know, somersault and then the land. And having that over in your mind is going to give you some sort of thing to focus on whilst you're standing there? Every. Some people want to talk to each other because they're, they're quite nervous and it's nervous talking that's going on. You need to be, you know, not rude, but you need to be in your zone where you're just tuning into what's going to happen next. And, and if you're a runner and you're on the start line of 1500 meter and you want to run the first 200 meters at a pace that's not going to go at breakneck speed. And you know everybody else in the race is going to run way too fast. You can be concentrating on that and then you know, you're thinking about what's going to happen next. That's, you know, as a swimmer in a triathlon, you know, you don't want to sprint into the water and get your heart rate up. You know, unless you're an elite professional, then you need to do that to stay with the bunch because you've practiced that. But as an age grouper who's just trying to get through in a pb, you're trying to keep your heart rate even the whole way through. So evenness and efficiency to getting into the water and starting your swimming, your swim pace at the pace you want to swim at for the whole duration of the 1500 or 750 or 2K or 4K, whatever, whatever the distance is. So your mind is totally focused on what is about to happen next. So you've got that calmness. I've got a race plan and I know what that plan is. And then you've just got to think about how am I going to execute it. Just like the ski jumper just before he does his jump, he's absolutely concentrating on what is going to happen in the next two minutes. And that's as far as you should be thinking. You should be thinking, I am going to be starting this 1500 meter at this pace or I'm going to start this marathon at 4 minute k pace, if that's what my pace is for the whole marathon. That's my sole intent that I'm going to think about. Now if I'm a triathlete, I'm going to think about the swim. And then once I'm in the swim, I'm getting towards the end of the swim. I'm going to think about transition. Then I'm going to be on the bike thinking about my bike power. Then I'm going to think about transition again. Then I'm going to think about my running pace. So you need to think about what's happening to you not only down the track, but in the actual the now. And so just before the race starts, you should be in that cone of silence where your thoughts are calm and confident that you've got this race because you've prepared yourself and remind yourself of the hard training stuff that you've done. If you're standing there and Ironman on the beach so you've done a lot of training to get to that point. I'm presuming you've done the right training to get to that point. And if you have done the right training and you've got your race plan and strategy really dialed in, you should be very confident and very relaxed and all you should be concentrating on is what's going to happen in the next two or three minutes. Knowing that once you start the event, your mind is going to go into overdrive and you're going to concentrate on what my swim strokes looking like. Am I following someone with the bubbles as a marathon runner? Is my first 500 meters at 4 minute K pace or am I stupidly running at 3:30? And they're the things that you should be concentrating on the in the moment thoughts that are going to enable you to get the end desired result and not think about, I hope I get the end desired result and keep saying that over and over again, how am I going to go? I hope I get the result I want. How am I going to go? That's what you're thinking about. Well, they're the things that cause more anxiety, burn more energy and stop you from concentrating on the things that are actually going to get you the desire desired result, which is the technical aspect of the swim ride or run that you're about to start. And that's, that's kind of what the last bit before the race starts should be about.

It's funny and we talk about this a lot, but when you're nervous or you're anxious, it's because you're wondering if you're going to hit the goal or not. You're not sure what's going to happen. It's that almost that fear of the unknown. Whereas when you're process focused, exactly what you're saying, what is my plan? What am I doing in the next two minutes? What am I doing the two minutes after that? You're just focusing two minutes at a time or five minutes at a time or segment at a time of the process. It's almost impossible to feel that anxiousness or feel totally overwhelmed by it because your mind just isn't focused on it. You're just not distracted by it. You're focused on the process at hand. Whereas if you're not doing that and you're focused on what you just said, you're all over the shop.

It's interesting, most of the people who get this right and after we have our post race analysis, they'll say to me, I can't believe how quickly that Race went one minute I was in the water just concentrating on my swim stroke and my breathing. Next thing I was in transition, I was on my bike and I was just concentrating on where I was on the course. Was it was a headwind or a tailwind, what my power was, how my cadence was. And next thing you know I'm back in transition, I'm running and all I've got to do is concentrate on my run and there's the finish. And you know, it's a half ironman that's taken them 4 hours 50. Yet they said it went as quick as they've ever experienced anything. Why? Because they were focused on what was happening at every single second of the event. Mentally. They had their plan that they were just playing out the whole way through things that they'd learned in their training and that we discussed before the event. They were playing that out in their mind and then they were executing it physically in their body.

Now we don't normally want to talk about negatives or things not to do, but in this case it is important to remind people sometimes of mistakes to avoid. And you do make sure you mention this to athletes and you say I definitely don't want you to see you doing X, Y or Z. So what are those things that you're kind of reminding athletes just to avoid some key mistakes just to make sure it doesn't ruin their race.

I suppose the main thing is to follow your strategy and don't get put off. I do say this a lot. You will find I'm going to use triathlon as an example. I could use marathon running. If your strategy is for a marathon to run 4 minute K pace, we'll use that as an example. And the majority of the field in the first kilometer are all running between 3:30 and 3:40 pace. That means most of the field are passing you. And so that is quite off putting you start questioning am I running too slow? What's wrong with me? But you've just got to remind yourself that no, you look down, I am running 4 minute K pace. Every other percentage of the people in this race have got it wrong because not Everybody can run 330 or 340 yet they're doing it in the first K and you'll find that there'll be six or seven people who can run that pace. If you're doing a marathon and the other 1700 are supposed to be running 4:30 or 5 minute or 5:30 or 6 minute it but because we all act like sheep and we're not concentrating on our own race strategy, they're just going with the flow. So that is one of the things that the biggest mistake is getting sucked into someone else's pace right at the start. And in running that is really hard to do. Imagine you're in an 800 and you want to run four 30 second efforts and the bunch goes through the first 200 in 26 and you're 10, 15 meters off the back. It feels embarrassing. You feel like you're doing the wrong thing. But you know, go forward another 600 meters and you're already fourth place, coming into third, coming into second because you've measured your effort better. They're the things you have to think about when other people are putting you off by the wrong pacing. So you know, in any event that you do, when you get off the bike in a triathlon and you start running, you're going to find there's going to be people running faster than you. When you get out of the swim and start riding, you're going to find there's going to be people riding way faster than you. I give the example of when I first came back to do the Geelong. I did the Geelong Aquabike and we're in the middle of the proper triathlon field and we start at the back of the field normally as an Aquabike ride racer. And that's not to say there aren't any good Aquabike races out there. There's teams and Aquabot races. So you've got some really good team riders and it is off putting because you might have some riders who, who are really just specifically time trial riders. They're, they're, we've got some Australian title holders in these teams which is fantastic for the sport, but they're riding 44, 43Ks an hour and it is off putting because you start questioning yourself, am I going fast enough? Because that guy went past me pretty damn quick. And my example at Geelong was, wasn't just one. I had the majority of people riding away from me in. That was my first race for a long, long time. And I was questioning. I don't think there's something, there's something wrong with my power meter here because there shouldn't be that many people who are better than me as a rider. And it was a 90k ride because.

You'Re a 210 rider at Geelong, for example, which is in the top percentile of the field.

I think I was 11th fastest on the day, but I didn't know that till the end. I just presume I was Saying to myself, boy, the standard of riding has improved in triathlon. That was what I was thinking. This is where I am. I'm staying at this number because this is the number I'm going to race at. And we had a tailwind out for the first. I think it's 20k out in 20 we 22k and 20 22k back. So it was tailwind out and as we got to the turnaround I think I'd had four or five hundred people pass me and as soon as we got to the turnaround to the headwind that just changed. I just rode past, back past those people and continued to. So the majority of the people who were passing me were finishing at 2 hours 30, 2 hours 40, 2 hours 50 even. And they should have no right to be passing me at the start. And, and that is off putting. So that's a mistake that you can make is people are right. I start to ride a little bit faster than I should be because the people around me are. And that's a huge mistake that I really drum into people is you just ride your numbers early and if then you are able to ride harder than your plan is without risking catastrophe, then do so. But, but don't do it at the start. And that is the key message. I'm telling people we've got a plan for a reason. Don't throw it out, you know, after five minutes because the rest of the field is running away from you. Trust the process. These are your numbers. This is what you've trained to. Don't have numbers that you're racing above that you know you're capable of doing. That's later on in the race. That's when that comes into play. You want to do a pb but you won't do the PB by doing a PB in the swim or doing off the start line. As a marathon runner running 3:30 and you know, expecting to be able to hold 4 minute k pace when your first 2 or 3k is 3:30 because the last 4 or 5k in a marathon will be 5 minutes or 6 minute k pace. That's what's going to happen. You know, so, so they're, that they're the, that's probably the key thing that I, I want every person out there to, to think about it's okay to be getting past and the other people's pace is not your pace. And if you think that just because the majority of the field are doing it, they must be right, think again. They're actually mistaken. You're in the minority.

I really want to finish off and just touch on self talk. And usually as athletes we're very good at pushing ourselves and most athletes out there don't need practice with pushing themselves to their limit. We're very good at that. We do a lot of training, a lot of racing, pain, pushing through pain. But self talk is so key. And there will be points in races where you hit a place where mentally you have to be just as strong as you are physically because it's really hurting, you're in a lot of pain, a lot of discomfort, and what you're saying to yourself in those moments is really, really important. And it will depict your body language, it will depict the level of pain you're feeling, your pain tolerance, it will depict your performance. And we know that every time you get to the last 200 meters or 400 meters or 800 meters, you get this fresh wave over you and you suddenly you just feel a little bit lighter and a little bit better and you can finish. And we don't want that to happen necessarily. We want you to be able to do that to yourself in the middle of the race and in that third quarter period when the race is at its absolute hardest. And that comes from practice. But really understanding the power of what you're saying to yourself and the language you're using with yourself will depict, you know, whether you're running in absolute agony and your form's going out the window and you're talking down to yourself about how hard it is compared to even though you're struggling, you're not going to ignore that fact that the amount of talking give yourself to dig deep and keep going can get you that extra bit of time that could help you run a PV or race a pv.

Yeah. It's a great point you make. And look, we just had an example of it at a race in South Australia with one of the athletes that we coach and Lynn won't mind me mentioning her name, but she actually passed the leader in her age group in the last few kilometres. And that's the time to race, that's the time to step up when the challenge is thrown out at you. It's all very well early on the race where your fatigue's low, you're mentally in tune, everything's going well, but there's going to be periods, whether it's a short period or a long period of time, where you're going to be challenged. And it could be challenged from within yourself. As I'm struggling, I don't know if I can run another step at this pace, I'm going to have to slow down. And if the reasons you're having to slow down are out of your control, like you're physically ill or you're getting injured or you've got a stitch where you can't do much about it, but if it's just that you're getting tired, these are the times where you want to step up. These are the times when you want to be. This is when you're going to be tested, not when it's easy. You want to be a person who knows that, okay, it's getting hard now. This is where I need to prove to myself that I am up for the challenge. And I was just so pleased that the way Lyn really just stepped up and saw the target and was so motivated to get to the top of the age group, there's where it is, there's where I need to be. And, and I think only one by 13 seconds or something over five plus hours, that's how important it is to be ready at any given point to step up. And that takes a lot of concentration. The physicalness is important. You have to talk yourself into being able to. As you said, we're all heroes when we've got 200 meters to go or some of us can be at that level where we can and really finish strong. But, but it's, you know, 4K out. Are you still at that hero that can, that can push the pace that you're supposed to be pushing. That could be the difference between your own personal PB and, or improving your position in the field. And they're the times where we just want to, we want to be known in, in our own mind as, yeah, I know when it's going to get tough. I, I know I can. I know I can stand up and, and be counted when I'm being asked. And you don't want to shy away from that. That's the challenge that you're in the event for. And boy, is that a good feeling post race when you look back and go, geez, I was challenged there. I'm just so proud of myself for actually being able to step up and do what I wanted when it counted. And I think that's what brings you back. You want that feeling. I was challenged and I came through it and I did a pb. And even if I didn't do a pb, I just, I was able to finish off the way that I'm really proud of myself. And every time that challenge comes, you know, You've already ticked it before and you're up for it. And so you can then push yourself a bit better each time because you know, you're on top of these things. And I think that self talk that having the right mindset. And I got another example of. I still remember seeing some footage of a race where the, the guy who was really everything was upsetting him. He was coming to the drink stations and screaming out I want Gatorade. And someone handed him water. And that's not running Gatorade, that's water and throwing it cup down on the ground. And, and that was more about his falling apart mentally and physically and using every distraction to, to, to, to. That was upsetting him and it was blaming the rest of the world for his failing. And you know, the calmness of the guy who was winning was just ticking along, you know, in control, mentally tough and not getting upset by anything that was distracting him. And plenty of things can distract you that, that aren't going your way that someone hands you the wrong drink. You know, you just got to go with the flow and, and, and be positive that I've got this. And, and you know, the minute you start thinking about things that are going wrong, that's a downward spiral. So you need to be thinking about the opposite. How am I going to keep tricking myself into. I'm going okay, you know, I'm just going to run with really good form here. And if I get the wrong form I could trigger some cramps. So I've got to run really well with foot placement and the lean of my body in my running action needs to be like this so my diaphragm's not getting compressed and I can breathe properly and I'm making sure the nutrition that I pick up at the aid station, you know, if I have to stop, go back and get the right nutrition if someone's handed me the wrong stuff. So there's always ways around it that you have to think through to enable you to get the best outcome rather than just losing the plot and having negative thoughts and the eventual outcome will be a disastrous result.

I would like to mention one strategy and it's David Goggins one second rule. We know we love mentioning him on here, but I just think this is so powerful. And he just says in those moments where you're just not sure if you can keep going, you just full of doubt and your body's screaming at you, he says, I don't know if I can make the entire thing. I don't know if I am. He talks about his ultras where he's 160 kilometers in, he's got 40 kilometers to go. In a 200 kilometer race, you just go, you are absolutely at your wits end, you can barely go another step. And he's going how am I supposed to do another 40 kilometers? And he says that, he says the one second rule is I don't know how much longer I can go for. I don't know what my absolute limit is, but I know I can go for one more second. And at this point I can go for one more second and it's just one more step at a time or one more second at a time. And if you've got 6K to go in your, in your ironman or your half ironman and you are on that limit and you think this pace is going to be so painful to hold for the last six kilometers, you don't think about the whole six kilometers, just think about one second at a time, just hold this pace one second at a time. When you keep doing that, Suddenly you find oh, 500 meters has passed again, now there's only 5.5k to go. You just keep going one second at a time. And I just really love that principle. I think that's a good strategy to use to practice in training and racing.

To think that we're going to go through an event and I don't care what your sport is where you're not going to be challenged. You're naive. You are going to be challenged at some point, whether it's a mechanical challenge, a physical challenge or a mental challenge, there's going to be something that isn't going well. And there ironically is very few experiences where people have just got gone through, sailed through events and got the outcome they wanted. And they're the days that you dream of and it does happen. But believe me, the majority of people are going to be challenged that I don't know if I can actually finish this event and I'm physically at my limit. And I think I've told a story where I did the Stratford to Dago road race where I fell off my bike. And I don't remember any of it falling off the bike on this climb and getting up and walking up the hill with my brother in the car behind me yelling out, you gonna ride your bike or are you gonna walk to the finish? And that's a mindset that I look back on with almost pride that my determination was so overriding everything else. Well, if the bike wasn't gonna help me I was gonna walk. And, you know, that's a. A mental approach that you can have no matter what. And if you think like that, there's hardly anything that's going to stop you. And you can have that mindset of strength and toughness, but to a point where it's got to be not unhealthy. And I look back on that going, that's a little bit unhealthy. That's going way beyond the level of where you should be pushing yourself. But it just proves that I know that I can push myself way more than I thought I could. And from that point on, I don't have fear anymore about my ability to tough it out when it gets tough. And I don't like to boast about that, but that I think that is a strength that you can have and develop in your training and in your racing, that no matter what happens to you, you can deal with what's thrown at you. And I think that that probably would sum up our best to go about, you know, something that, you know, you're trying to prepare for. It has to be not only a preparation, but the actual doing in the event.

That's a great way to finish. As always, thanks for listening to this episode, and we'll see you on the next one.