Triathletes, You're Doing Your Practice Race Wrong

It is excellent practice (pun intended) to put a practice race on your tri calendar ahead of your “A” race of the season. Not just for your first season, or even your first season at a new distance – every single season. Entering a triathlon with the explicit intention of using it to prepare for your key event allows you the opportunity to test out new equipment, shake the dust off last season’s equipment, and remind yourself of the little things you really only deal with on race day. Things like how much gear you need in your transition bag, and how little space you have for it in transition.

To get the most out of this practice race, though, you’ll want a clearly-defined strategy, otherwise it could be a waste of time (and energy). Then you need to translate that strategy into a detailed plan for your practice race, execute it on race day, and capture what you learned so that you can apply it toward your “A” race. Sound complicated? Only if you don’t follow our road map, below:

What’s your ideal practice race strategy?

There are four basic practice race categories:

1. The Walk-Through
2. A Key Sport Fitness Focus
3. An Execution Focus
4. The Full Dress Rehearsal

Two factors will determine which of the four is your ideal practice race strategy. The magic equation: allowable effort level + key to success = practice race strategy. No kidding, it’s that straightforward (and don’t worry, we have a chart to help).

Allowable effort level

Above all else, you have to make sure that you’re fully recovered from the effort of your practice race before toeing the line at your “A” race. The amount of time needed to recover is a function of the practice race distance, the number of weeks between that race and your “A” race, and your effort level during your practice race. So the date and distance of your practice race dictate your maximum allowable effort, which in turn dictates the appropriate general strategy for your practice race.

Key to success

After ensuring that you’re fully recovered from your practice race, the next highest priority is to test and prove at your practice race that one critical piece that will solidify your success at your “A” race. That piece often follows one of two narratives:

1. You are finally going to conquer the aspect of the race where you normally struggle
2. You are going to elevate a strength to an area of excellence.

Whatever the story, the key to your success is your specific priority for your practice race strategy and shapes the details of your race plan.

Translating your strategy to a detailed practice race plan

With your general strategy and key to success identified, you’re ready to develop the details of your practice race plan.

The walk-through (AKA, “catered training day”) practice race

The walk-through is the most conservative approach to your practice race strategy, used when your top concern is minimizing fatigue. You’ll execute the race at an easy-to-endurance effort (Zones 1-2, RPE 3-4/10) from start to finish.

Incorporating the key to success in your walk-through can be tricky, especially if your key to success revolves around executing race-pace efforts. So focus on process and execution, stay disciplined with your effort level, and spend your easy miles on the practice race course visualizing how strong you’ll feel at your “A” race.

Walk-through practice race example: You have a half-distance practice race three weeks before your full-distance “A” race. You have struggled in prior long-course races with fatigue and dehydration on the run, so your key to success is to fuel and hydrate properly. You’ll execute the entire race at your endurance effort, and use your extra energy to maintain a singular focus on following a regimented hydration and fueling plan.

Key sport fitness-focused practice race

A Fitness Focus strategy is used when your key to success involves hitting and holding your intended race effort and your allowable effort level provides room for you to do that. You’ll execute your key sport at race effort – either the effort appropriate for the practice race or the effort you’ll be targeting at your (presumably longer) “A” race – and hold the other two sports to an easy-to-endurance effort (Zones 1-2, RPE 3-4/10).

Fitness-focused practice race example: You have an Olympic-distance practice race two weeks before your half-distance “A” race. You feel that your race-day run has never lived up to its potential and this is the year you’re going to change that, so your key to success is solidifying that you can run at your proven-in-training run paces. You’ll execute the swim and bike at your endurance effort, then run the 10k at your Olympic-distance pace.

Execution-focused practice race

An execution-focused strategy is used when your key to success is anything other than a specific effort level for swim, bike, or run and your maximum allowable effort allows for some work at race pace. It’s important to remember that your priority within this strategy is your process, not your pace, especially because focusing on pace often distracts from your focus on the process.

Even though it’s not the top priority, you’ll also want an effort-level plan for your practice race:

• You can execute from start to finish at a single effort level, one step easier than the appropriate effort level for the practice race.
• You can adopt a single-sport emphasis as you would with a Fitness Focus.
• You can use a “final miles” strategy, where you’ll execute 2/3 of each leg at an easy-to-endurance effort and the final 1/3 of each leg at race effort.

Execution-focused practice race example: You have a sprint-distance practice race three weeks before your Olympic-distance “A” race. You have struggled with anxiety during the swim leg in prior races, resulting in a lot of breaststroke and holding onto kayaks, so your key to success is a calm-and-collected swim leg. Your race plan, therefore, will focus on swim execution: You’ll start by queueing up with a sense of calm and purpose, then you’ll enter the water and turn to grounding techniques to quiet your nervous system while you transition to swimming at a consistent and comfortable endurance effort. After you exit the water and pat yourself on the back, you’ll execute the bike and run at your Olympic-distance effort level.

Dress rehearsal practice race

The full dress rehearsal is used when you have no limitations on your allowable effort level. You can treat your lowercase practice race as an uppercase Race, and execute from start to finish at the effort level appropriate for the race distance. Proving your key to success remains your top priority, though, so you may benefit from a slightly more conservative plan to ensure that you can focus on your key to success.

Dress rehearsal practice race example: You have an Olympic-distance race five weeks before your half-distance “A” race. You tend to get hyper-competitive on the bike, as it’s your strength, but then find yourself fading on the run, so your key to success is to not exceed your bike targets. You’ll execute the swim at your Olympic-distance effort level, use extreme discipline to execute your bike at your half-distance effort level, and then be thrilled when you execute your run – from T2 to the finish line – at your Olympic-distance effort level.

Keys to executing the perfect practice race

Beyond your general strategy and key to success, there are some additional do’s and don’ts that will ensure that you get the most out of your practice race.

While it should go without saying: Do follow your practice race plan. In case that wasn’t clear: FOLLOW YOUR PRACTICE RACE PLAN. Treat the weekend like an “A” race weekend and follow your standard race week patterns in terms of sleep, meals, and preparation. Use the same equipment as you will for your “A” race, eat the same breakfast, and follow the same fueling and hydration plan. Speaking of fueling and hydration plans, be sure you have one and be sure you follow it.

Again, this should be obvious, but: Don’t deviate from your practice race plan. In case that wasn’t clear: DON’T DEVIATE FROM YOUR PRACTICE RACE PLAN—even if you feel great, spot your arch-nemesis and hate the thought of finishing behind them, get swept up in all the race day vibes, or second-guess everything as soon as you arrive at the race venue.

Capture what you’ve learned

Finally, be sure to capture the lessons learned from your practice race day. Note any improvements you can make in your race execution and codify those areas where you’ve already got it figured out. Think through your pre-race and race morning routine, your equipment, your swim, bike, and run pacing and execution, your fueling and hydration plan and execution: What should you keep for your “A” race, and what should you change? Write it down on a post-it or – even better – keep your notes on your phone and update them as your racing evolves from season to season. Because in many ways, every race is practice for the next one!