Don’t Change a Thing For Race Day
The stories are endless, all bad and all avoidable.
It seems so logical, yet we all violate this rule on a regular basis, sometimes thinking it will save us time or make the race more enjoyable. 10 times out of 10, it comes back to bite us, with very few exceptions.
Here is the rule to live by: Do not change a thing in your equipment or set up for race day, and always, always, train with all the equipment and gear that you will be using for the race. If that means you want to race with Zipp wheels, make sure you train with them multiple times in varied conditions. If that means you want to carry three full water bottles on your bike and a hydration strap on the run, train with 3 water bottles and a hydration strap. If that means making a special electrolyte cocktail you want to use on race day, train with it dozens of times.
Don’t move your bike seat forward by an inch, inflate your tires by 10 more psi, change your running shoes without first running in them multiple times, or even change your googles. Train with or without your contact lenses if that’s what you are going to do for the race. Train with the wetsuit you will be using, not your reserve wetsuit and use the same socks you train with, or go sockless depending on how you train. Don’t change your bike shoes, cleats, pedals, or even your heart rate monitor. Use what you will use on race day for training so that there are no surprises. Break in new clothes and equipment so they don’t rub in the wrong places during the race. Don’t even get a pre-race tune up on your bike without taking it out for a 20 mile ride right afterwards. Swim with your tri-suit on under your wetsuit and then do a bike and a run after that to make sure you get used to the wet top and bottoms you are wearing. Always do what you do and wear what you wear in training on race day.
Here are some of my favorite mistakes made by triathletes before you. And trust me, I am just scratching the surface.
“I bought new socks and used them for the race. My blisters got so bad, I had to drop out ½ way through the run. It took 2 months for the blisters to fully heal which affected my training for my next race.
“I used my brand new wetsuit for the race that I got in the mail just the day before. It was only a Half Ironman distance race so I thought what could go wrong with a 1.2 mile swim. It rubbed in all the wrong places and I was in so much pain that I had to radically change my stroke ½ through, slowing me down considerably. All that pool swimming over the winter meant nothing in terms of dropping my time, all because I used my new wetsuit on race day.”
A girl friend with a new tri-bike came up to me once the day before the start of her first ½ Ironman and said. “Look at my new bike.” My response was “cool bike, but I hope you aren’t going to race with all that liquid.” She had a huge aero bottle, twice as big as most, and 2 sixteen ounce water bottles in aero cages. She was going to be carrying 3.5 extra pounds of fluid and the fluid in her big tub up front was likely going to affect her steering while in the aero position. I told her to only bring as much liquid as she needed to get to the first bike rest stop where she could grab a bottle and get to the next one. At the end fo the race she admitted trying something new like that was stupid. It made the climbs slower and the flats harder. Her time would have likely been better had she just used her old bike with a 12 ounce bottle of Gatorade in the cage.
My personal stories.
My first triathlon, I over did the pre-race nutrition by downing a big breakfast followed by a big protein shake. I never do this in training, so why today? The protein I used was Whey and I have a milk allergy. Have you ever heard of curds and whey? Well I guess it took me a while to put that one together (about 3 years to be exact) before I realized that I was allergic to whey. Drinking whey has the opposite effect on me. Instead of replenishing me and my muscles, it acts like Drano. So anyway, back on the run, I got major stomach cramps and had to run into the woods once or twice, killing my time and making me completely dehydrated.
I wore no socks on the run for an Olympic Distance race that I had done before. It was the first time ever however not wearing socks with those running shoes. The inside of my Asics rubbed against my foot and caused a wound that was bleeding by the time I finished. Needless to say, I was limping across the finish line, hurting my time more than the 30 seconds I saved by going sockless for the entire race.
I had my aunt put on stretch laces on my running shoes the night before my first Ironman race. I tried on the shoes for 2 minutes. They felt great in the hotel room. It didn’t take long during the run, probably a mile into the 26 mile race, when my feet both went completely numb. I blamed it on the extra long and painful bike. But no, it was because my stretch laces were too tight and cut off my circulation.
I used a recovery drink for a ½ Ironman that I threw together on race day. It had a ton of Whey Protein among other things. It acted like Drano instead of refueling me and I barely made it home on the long ride home. What was supposed to take 4.5 hours took me 8 hours because I had to stop so much, and I was more dehydrated after the drive than I was after the 6 hour race.
I used a new tri-tank-top jersey and the edges cut into my lats so much so I had to have a volunteer put sponges there to stop the rubbing and bleeding.
I raised my seat a tad before the race to get into a more aero position. My back cramped up so badly I could hardly hold the aero position. I’ve never been in so much pain in my life.
I taped 5 Gus to my bike before an Olympic distance race, as the bike was five loops. After each loop, I would eat a GU. At most, prior to this race, I had eaten maybe 4 GUs in my entire life. Needless to say, I was praying to the Triathlon Gods after the race with my head in a bucket and I couldn’t eat GUs for 3 years after that race.
Salt pills – I didn’t know anything about salt or electrolytes prior to my first ½ Ironman. It was 90 degrees during the run and I sweat a lot, much more than the average athlete. Having said that, the race director had promised Gatorade Endurance Formula on the course so I thought, no problem, I’ll drink what they have on the course. It turns out the Gatorade was regular Gatorade, with ½ the electrolytes of Endurance Formula. On such a hot day, I was losing so much sodium and sodium chloride that my quads started to cramp badly. I had to stop and walk half way through the run. Then I had to stop all together for a while until a fellow athlete handed me some salt tablets and said “take these, I never race without them.” From that day forward, I never race a ½ Ironman without my salt tablets.
And my all time favorite mistake I made for a race doing something new.
“You know Jeff, those are some pretty big holes in the back of your knees.” That was my Aunt telling me about the huge gashes my brand new knee brace had caused in my skin from a 112 bike and a 26 mile run. They were so deep that I should have had them stitched up after but since they didn’t hurt because of all the other pain I was in, I decided to sleep on the decision. It took me 2 full months to heal.
I had gone and bought knee braces from CVS pharmacy the day before my first Ironman. Stupid stupid stupid. I thought they would help me finish the race in the even my knees acted up or my quad muscle failed on me. They didn’t help at all. In fact, they just hurt! And the irony of it all was that I met another athlete participant in the drug store before the race who was doing the same thing I was doing.
General mistakes to avoid:
My first ½ Ironman, I took a huge water bottle from a volunteer going full speed. I had never practiced this before. In fact, I had never taken anything from anyone while riding a bike. This was new to me. Given my speed, the weight of the water bottle in my right hand twisted my entire body backwards followed by my bike’s front tire. I found myself headed straight into a volunteer table before I righted myself and got away with a very miss. Lesson - Slow down significantly before taking water or Gatorade from volunteers.
In I took a Gatorade bottle from a volunteer while on the bike. He hadn’t removed the plastic wrap nor the foil underneath the cap. While traveling at 15-17 mph, I had to use both hands to unscrew the cap and somehow get the foil off. Lesson learned – some races are better run with more knowledgeable volunteers than others.
For the Vineman ½ Ironman I did, by 6:45am, the 18 porta potties had no toilet paper. I luckily brought my own. Many didn’t and had to go without. Lesson learned. Never ever trust that a race will have toilet paper (BRING YOUR OWN) and always anticipate that the porta poties will all be overflowing and disgusting.
Lessons Learned the Hard Way:
Don’t do what I did and thousands of others have done before you. Don’t do anything new on race day. Keep it simple, from the way you tie your hair, from the food you consume for breakfast, from what you carry on your bike, your bike set up, the shoes y ou use, your warm up for the swim; I could go on. Don’t change your swim stroke, don’t pedal differently and don’t change your stride on the run. Use those socks that have worked for you in training and the bike set up you are used to. Being comfortable and safe is more important the trying to shave a few seconds off your time. It’s not worth the risk and it never works the way you want it to. Have fun and enjoy the ride.