Tag Archives: race day

3 Comeback Tips for a Bad Race

Fall race season is in full swing.  Sometimes things go well.  Sometimes they don’t.

And having a bad race is pretty much the worst.  Yes, there are horrible things going on in the world but in the moment you cross that finish line after a less than ideal performance things can get emotional.  It’s important to remember that bad races happen and don’t mean the end of your running career.  Look how gracious Meb was after a bad racenot-so-wonderful Olympic experience!  We’re not all that talented but we work hard for those PRs and it hurts to miss a goal.  Here are 3 ways to bounce back after a challenging race:

Vent:  Be angry and sad and frustrated.  Feel all of the feelings.  Let it all out so you can move forward.  It might take one deep breath, maybe a cocktail or beer, possibly days but failing to move on will impede your next training cycle by lowering your confidence and sucking up your motivation.

Evaluate:
Your pre-race ritual:  While you can’t go back and change anything that happened during the race, you can change what happens before.  Did you eat the right food fuel the night before?  Were you sleeping enough?  Was your taper adequate?  Did your travel plans give you time to adjust to the altitude and time difference or recover from flying?  Each of these factors can change your body’s ability to perform at its best.

The Weather:  There’s only so much anyone can do about weather.  And that is a whole lot of nothing.  High winds, freezing temperatures, loads of humidity and heat waves can all have a major impact on your performance.  Sometimes a bad race isn’t all your fault and remember, everyone else out there had to deal with it, too.

Your goal:  Was your goal really reasonable?  Aiming to shave 45 minutes off a marathon over one season is noble but probably not attainable.  Make sure you set feasible goals that push you without bordering on miraculous.

Your training:  How did your training go?  Did it include enough speed work?  How about a long enough base phase?  Did you train for the terrain you would be racing on?  Take a good hard look at your journal to examine what workouts were good and which ones weren’t.  Most importantly, make sure you weren’t over-training or pushing through an injury.

Move on:  At the end of the day, OK, it was a bad race.  Was it the worst race ever in the whole world?  Probably not.  Even more important is to look at all the things you learned and focus on positive parts of the event.  Make sure you’re emotionally ready then go sign up for another.

Coach Meredith

How to Run Your Best Race

Race season is here!  And we all want every one to be our best, or at least pretty good.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen every time.  Bad races happen.  Sometimes we’re running a training race just for fun and other times our day goes completely off course leading to results we’re not happy with.  No matter which one your event is, here are some of Team ECRP‘s favorite ways to make any one your best race yet.best race

Practice.  Replicate every part of race day you can before hand.  Get up and eat like you will that morning.  Test out different nutrition strategies for during the race on your long training runs.  Then practice messing it all up.  Run in any kind of weather you can while making sure none of those winter layers chafe.  Race day is unpredictable and the more prepared you are for the unknowns the closer you’ll be to having your fastest race yet.

Plan.  Know where you’ll park and if the race starts where it ends or is point to point.  Figure out what nutrition is on course or if you’ll need to bring what you’re comfortable with.  Decide where you’ll meet your family afterwards.  Doing all of these things will help eliminate unknowns which will make race day less stressful for everyone.

best raceFocus on you.  You’re trying to run your best race.  Not another runner’s.  Don’t worry about how fast the people around you go out or what they’re going to do later on.  You’re only in control of your own performance and pushing too hard early will cost a lot towards the end.  Stick to the plan you made during training and the rest will fall into place.

Have fun.  Getting tense or stressed out in the middle of a race is a sure fire way to perform poorly.  We run because it’s fun so let’s keep it that way.  Stay loose, smile at the water stop volunteers and say ‘thank you’ to the course marshals.  It’ll keep you happy, positive and well on your way to a wonderful finish.

Use these tips and you’ll be a few steps closer to having your best race day yet.

Coach Meredith