What does an elite athlete do a week out from an “A” Race….

Written by: Jacqui Allen, 16th August 2017

What does an elite athlete do a week out from their A race?
I have some time on my hands and thought I would take you through my pre race week. I am exactly one week out from my A race the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship taking place in Penticton, Canada. For this race you have to be selected by your country, I’m honoured to be selected for Great British Cross Triathlon and Aquathon Team. I’m proud to represent and grateful for the help and support British Triathlon offers its elite athletes.

 

Some of you may be wondering what we do in the lead up to a major race so here it is:
My training hours have been reduced from around 23 to 12hrs with some intensity but very short in duration. This time for me is a little different as i’ll be coming down from altitude so I need to be recovered whilst I’m up here, the worst thing I can do at this point is to over exert myself as I wont be recovered for race day. The other thing that is different is race day it’s Wednesday weird ay, but it doesn’t change the plan.

My training schedule looks something like this:

  • Wednesday (1 week out from the race) – 60mins ride which includes 2/3 4 minute threshold efforts followed by some all out 10 second sprints with lots of recovery in-between, I will run for 15mins off the bike with 5mins at race pace. In the afternoon there will be an easy 20min run and gym work, which will be core and mobility, focussed.

 

  • Thursday – Hard swim session with short sharpe intervals, 1 hour bike with some 10,
    30 second and 1 minute efforts. Today I will have a massage at 4pm yay highlight of
    the week.

 

  • Friday – Swim and Run with 10mins high tempo. Recovery & packing.

 

  • Saturday – 1 hour ride with 3 x 3mins at threshold, short run off the bike followed by some T1 and T2 transition practice. We also a have a sponsor commitment with On running it’s a good opportunity to network in a relaxed friendly environment with a little yoga and some good chin wagging about all things running.

 

  • Sunday – Travel Day – We have a reasonably long day of travel with this in mind we booked good flight times so we didn’t have to wake up in the dark to be on the plane by 7am. Our flight is 3 hours long and there’s a 1 hour time difference. On arrival in Canada we will drive the 4 hour trip to Penticton that day, apparently it’s a beautiful drive so we will stop a few times stretch the legs and eat some food. We plan to arrive in Penticton at 8pm and I have a massage booked to help flush out the travel fatigue.

  • MondayBike and run course reconnaissance nice and easy with a good break in between each discipline.

 

  • Tuesday – Swim course recce and any bike sections I wish to go over having already ridden the course. Race briefing. Prepare gear I like to lay it out and pack my bag using a checklist.

 

  • Wednesday Race Day – RACE, RECOVER, massage hopefully CELEBRATE. It’s important to be flexible with your plan if something doesn’t work out there is no point in stressing about it use your resources to overcome the adversity and deal with it the best way you can.

Here are some of things I will do to get organised and keep my mind active in between the training:

• Confirm car hire, flights, visa’s, and airport shuttles print off any relevant paper work or documents we need for the trip this is the easiest job because we have Flight Centre Sports & events assisting us with all the details.
• Eat very good clean food and no skipping meals, I consider everything I eat, this is going to help me stay healthy, recover and perform my best at sessions leading into the race and for the race. Remember food is your fuel, the better quality fuel you put in the better your car will run, the same principle applies for your body. With a lower training volume I use this time to prepare healthy meals and food for our travel day, it’s good to have healthy snacks on hand so you don’t eat the junk food offered at airports.
• Chill, relax, watch netflix, blog, and catch up with friends and family get some good quality sleep.
• Prepare bike for travel, the bike has already been serviced and is in good working order, I’m happy with my tyre choices Schwalbe Racing Ralf however I always travel with a couple of spares a Rocket Ron for the mud and Thunder Burt if I feel its good for the course conditions. Pack bike using a checklist to ensure all parts are in the bike bag.
• Prepare other equipment such as shoe choice my choice for off road triathlon is always the On running Cloud Venture peak it’s perfect, with the addition of some pre tied Greeper laces I’m confident in my footwear whatever the terrain this shoe covers all basis. Nutrition and gels are packed and labelled up ready for race day.
• Whilst I have a little more time on my hands I love to catch up with b&j racing athletes & their training programmes I aim to get their programmes written before race day so I can fully relax after the race and
enjoy the celebrations.
• Send out a quick update to my sponsors they love to know what’s going on and always offer supportive
words of advice leading into big events.
• I mentally prepare there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t visualise the race, for this race its hard to
visualise the course because it’s an unknown until Monday however I visualise the swim start, I think about the pain and the suffering, I plan tactics that I will use to ensure I’m relaxed before and during the race and I visualise the finish line and the celebrations. I’m constantly thinking about the race and how it will pan out, so I try to distract myself by meeting up with friends, going to café’s, reading and going shopping. I also write down the processes of the race rather than think about the outcome. I hope this helps you to understand what goes into to race week however the magic happens beforehand
race week is time to chill, feel confident in your training and everything you’ve done to get you to the
start line. It’s a very nice feeling knowing you’ve done all that’s possible to be the best you can be on the day that counts the most.

“Luck favors the prepared”

I’ll leave you with that. 
Jacqui Allen xx