Race Tactics

What do you think about during a race? Are you hanging on for dear life, out of control and doing whatever you can to get to the finish in whatever state that is. Or are you in control, measuring out your effort across the whole race, and following a race plan which might include changes in effort at strategic times with the objective of getting to the finish faster than, and ahead of your competitors? Whichever approach you take, they both represent race tactics...whether good or bad.

Race tactics often seem to be the things that only the elite use. But just as any well planned training plan covers the three essential aspects of fitness, technical and tactical skills, so every race should include consideration for your fitness level, technical abilities and tactics to maximise the other two aspects. So to that end, race tactics are for everyone, and something only the naive would ignore.

A few weeks ago Chris McCormack did an interview in which he talked at length about tactics in the Hawaii IM, and in particular, what he felt various athletes should be doing before and during the race to ensure the race played out in their favour by both controlling what they did and influencing others in their favour, which is difficult because each other athlete would be endeavouring to do the same!! This is why Macca talked about the importance of pre-race semantics (propaganda?) to put his thoughts in the minds of others that would hopefully reap rewards on race day.

It was a fascinating dicsussion primarily because in 2010 Macca raced one of the best tactical IM races in history, not just on the day but in the years beforehand. It was almost as if he wrote a script with roles for each athlete, and then executed it like a Steven Spielberg directed film. History records that he won a brilliant race, where race tactics came through that involved physical and mental mastery, and intimately knowing himself, the course and the tendencies of other athletes.

However, of course, Macca is unique and very few of us perform at a level to execute tactics like he does. Nonetheless, there are lessons from Macca that we can all learn from and apply to our races so that our tactics - essentially the decisions we make - ensure the best outcome from our races.

Here are some of the key race tactics points:

1. Know yourself and your capabilities. There's no quicker way to bring your race down than to try performing at a level that is beyond what all indications beforehand suggest you are capable of. Great tactics involve pushing to your limits - and occasionally a smidgeon beyond - based on knowing what your capabilities are and how far / hard / fast / etc you can go for. Tactics invole knowing whether you are able to change your pace, by how much, for how long - should the need arise - compared to a sensible base pace. Pacing tactics make or break races.

2. Know the course. The course is a fixed aspect of the race, so it pays to knows the geography in advance to not only train appropriately, but also to plan your tactics and strategy for each part of it, for example, the most appropriate way of climb the hills depending on length and steepness. Knowing the course also implies consideration for the length, since tactics for an Olympic Distance triathlon are vastly different to those for an Ironman. Also, knowing the course can also mean being familiar with prevailing weather conditions, including heat/cold, winds and more.

3. Know your competition. While not necessarily applicable for everyone, for those who are racing for a placing it is due diligence to know who your competition is and their relative strengths and weaknesses...as much as you can. This helps to know how to - or whether to - respond to their performance during a race (within your capabilities, of course!). Also, as Macca points out, knowing your competition also means knowing their mental game, and whether you can influence that.

4. Expect the unexpected. Race tactics really only represent an idealistic plan assuming everything else going according to script. However there are countless uncontrollables that affect your race, and turn your tactics on their head. That is why any plan must have have the capability to be changed on the fly, whether the fall-back is plan B, C, Z or one you'd never considered, which is where experience from training and racing comes into play. The one thing you do want to avoid is being too reactive to events around you, otherwise you have lost control of your race.

5. Manage risks. In conjuction with expecting the unexpected, you need to manage the risks associated with any race tactics you employ against the benefit it might bring towards the eventual race outcome. Put into practice, the risk of going too hard too early will surely bring you undone later on...as will surging too hard mid-race. However, you might decide the effort to bridge a gap to group is worth it for the benefit of the group dynamic. You need to decide these things as you go, based on knowing yourself, the course, competition, etc.

So bringing all these things together - plus a host of others - allows you to plan optimum race tactics in advance, and be prepared for a range of scenarios to occur and know what is the best thing to do. Each race scenario you find yourself in is also an opportunity to learn more about how you body actually responds so that you might be able to better optimise race tactics in the future. Race tactics are something you never completely master - but practice sure does help - and is why sporting competition is always intriguing because no two events are ever the same.