Racing Machines

A well known sports nutrition company has a memorable print ad which features a photo of a famous, sponsored athlete alongside the words "Train, train, train, train, train, train. Race. Train, train, train...". The point being that these guys spend a lot of time training, and choose their races carefully with the intention of racing well when they do. By implication, you wouldn't say they over race!!!

On the flip side, there are athletes in a range of sports who seem to race almost weekly, especially if you average out their events across the year. In particular, cyclists can go through periods of racing multiple times a week, not to mention team sport athletes who must front up each week to perform throughout a season - surely a tough task. Nevertheless, these folks face up to competition without blinking, like it's part of their DNA.

Those contrasts don't necessarily relate only to elite, professional athletes since the same tendencies permeate through to amateur athletes, also - I'm sure you can think of friends who seem to be always training, and other friends who jump into any race they can. Certainly, in my area keen multisport athletes can find some kind of race on almost every day of the week during summer, let alone just on weekends, to satisfy every desire for an adrenalin fix. Just don't worry about the impact on the rest of your life!!

But are these racing machines onto something that the lesser raced athletes could tap into? They seem to be primed (almost) every time they line up, and even allowing for some performance blips they seem to consistently go pretty well at whatever they tackle. The reality is that the answer is not straight forward, because not only does it depend on the individual but also on goal races, longevity, attitude and more. Let's look a little more at it all...

Firstly, this is not a discussion about extremes - racing a lot or a little - because like everything there is a middle ground, which itself is not clearly defined!! Also, the amount you race can vary across the year, from off-season to peak season, or the lead-up to goal race. There's a lot to be said for/about each phase.

The background for racing is a base level of fitness - this is an assumption. Another critical consideration is the sport you'll be doing the racing in. Swimming is easy on the body, and running is hard on the body. This difference will impact and limit the amount of racing you can do. Typically cyclists can / do race a lot because it is low weight bearing. This is all obvious so the definition of "racing a lot" is relative to the sport(s) you do.

Racing a lot has many benefits, from the skills and tactics you develop and refine, to the top-end race fitness that comes from the associated intensity for nothing really replicates the effort of a race. Then there's the adrenalin, enjoyment and excitement of being in the heat of action. The downsides of racing a lot is that you need to spend time recovering to race again rather than training, and thus over time can experience a net loss in some aspects of fitness - you can only sustain high frequency and high performance for a limited time. Also, there is cumulative fatigue, physical and mental, from continual racing, especially if you put yourself on the line with each outing.

Going back to the key assumption we made earlier - the need to have a base level of fitness - is perhaps the key reason why an athlete might not race a lot. This is especially the case the longer the goal races are since training for a marathon or IM will necessarily require you to devote successive weeks putting together consistent training. The problem with this approach is that it is easy to forget what racing is like, and the mental and physical skills needed to perform. Training can be a comfort zone, and sometimes the more entrenched you get in this comfort zone the harder it is to bring yourself out in order to actually achieve the performance goals you set.

In this context, racing too little is a negative since even occasional racing reminds you about the end point of a training phase. Nonetheless, some people just enjoy training for the joy of being fit and the challenge of seeking variation in training.

On the other hand, racing a lot can be used as a key tool to prepare for key races, to use the benefits we mentioned before of developing top-end fitness so that you're primed for goal races when they arrive. However the value of racing as preparation will depend on the length of your goal race - think specificity - eg, a 5km run race is of limited value in the immediate lead-up to a marathon. But for short course events, lead in races are ideal preparation and with a base level of fitness can and will bring you to physical and mental peak...although the timing and combination of lead in races should be carefully considered.

But what of the people who do race endlessly? Sure, they are well-oiled in the routine of racing, and likely drunk on the atmosphere of an event, but I suspect they are perhaps missing out on what could be a breakthrough performance because they don't really allow themselves the chance to focus on any particular race, and they carry residual fatigue from race to race. Plus, their fitness will have rather narrow range defined by the style of racing they do, which may not be a bad thing, but would likely be filled with weaknesses in their capabilities due to relying on racing as training.

So it really is the middle ground that is most effective amount of racing to do. Vary the frequency, length, format, tactics and intensity of racing throughout the year to suit your training and fitness progress towards you goal events. Choose races with an objective and then set out to achieve them - what you take from a race is not just the end result, but the process to achieve that result. All this means that sometimes you might race a lot, and other times you might not. The excitement of racing will be there when you do, and you'll allow yourself the opportunity to focus on each race and perform to your potential.