Title: Racing in the City
Tags: how often to race
Blog Entry: Sometimes I feel like Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex In The City." Only because we have this in common: What happens in our real lives affects what we write. The things I encounter as both a coach and an athlete inform what I write about here. And one issue seems to be coming up quite a bit lately in my life as the weather improves: How much should we race? Obviously, which sport you participate in affects racing frequency. If you are a cyclist and crit rider, racing every weekend can be part of the training, depending on the average length of the crits you do. But you shape your training around that racing, and the racing is a big part of the whole picture in regards to training. The kinds of instincts and strategic sense one needs as a crit rider can only be developed by doing -- in the actual race. Bike racing requires that we train without the racing in the off season (if you have a cold winter to contend with), with intervals and well-placed/reasonable volume, then trim some of that interval work back a bit as racing season starts and racing becomes a means to improve. And this works in cycling because recovery is a little easier than those sports that require impact, such as running and, to some degree, triathlon. Racing every weekend in either running or triathlon can prove costly to the body. So to answer the question of how often for a runner or triathlete, we need to think in terms of fitness level and goals. If your fitness level isn't so great and you try to "race yourself into shape" you run a very high risk of injury. The body just isn't ready for that kind of work and it will probably push back against it. The athlete is better off working into training and using racing as a testing ground of sorts to check progress. And once you're in shape, racing works as a way to get in a high level workout. But too often, even when an athlete is in "shape", I see people racing each and every weekend for months on end as a means of training. That's just not smart. Race too much and you will get injured -- especially the long races and especially for those of us over 40. We really need to be sensitive to recovery and where we put hard and long efforts into our weeks and our overall cycles of training. I realize that racing allows us to often achieve a level of performance we cannot always get in training. And that is part of its value. But if we go to that place too often -- especially on longer events -- it can really break the body down. So well-placed races do help us get better. I recommend races be put in the training at the outset of the cycle, so you know what you are shooting for and allow the training to be informed by that goal race. Then you can include races at points in the training where popping a peak performance will help advance the goals. For a runner, a couple of times a month is probably about as many as you want to do, if your goal is to race all out. Triathletes need to make the decision of how often based on the distance of the event. The longer the races are, the more I'd stretch them out. Triathletes can use shorter races as speed prep and tune ups for mid-distances races. But again, be judicious about how often. The rule here is to allow for recovery. Use the racing in conjunction with effective training to get the most out of both.
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