As February approaches, it is the time of year where athletes should start planning ahead for their 2023 race season. For athletes racing in Eastern Canada/nearby USA as early as April-May, specificity will need to be reintroduced into training very soon in order to be prepared for these events. However, many athletes find it hard to structure their season and training for long term success. Here are our top 3 tips to structure your 2023 race season for optimal performance:
Step 1: Determine "A" races, or "goal races"
Your first step deciding which races will be your "A" races, or "Goal Races." These are the races you want to be at your 100% best and rested for. All other races will be planned around these goal events in order to ensure that you are well prepared, rested, and tapered for them. Furthermore, these are races athletes will generally put at least 6-10 weeks of focused work towards, including a taper (a reduction in training load intended to reduce accumulated fatigue to arrive at race day rested and sharp). How to determine goal races: Start by determining which event/distance you would do best in, or which event is the biggest/most important on your schedule. Next, rate our events on a scale of importance from 0-5 (0 being not at all important and 5 being of utmost importance). Whichever events that are 5/5 in importance would be your "A" races. These "A" races and their dates will determine the layout of the rest of your season. *Keep in mind that we cannot be peaked and tapered for every single race, every single month. We need to be able to train with increasing stress in order to elicit an adaptation. If we are constantly recovering/tapering we are not going to elicit this functional overreaching adaptation. Choose 2-3 events per year that are ideally 6-10 weeks apart which will be your "A" races. As you can see in the table below, if your goal was to put in 6 weeks of focused work to prepare for the OCRWC 3km as an "A" race, you would need to start in late August:
Depending on your goal event's distance, it can be hard to truly peak and taper multiple times in a year. For example, preparing for a goal Ultra may require months (10-16 weeks) of preparation as well as a long recovery period post event (can be 1-2 months depending on fitness level and age), thus making it difficult to properly prepare for more than one or two Ultra events in a single calendar season. On the other hand, if your goal distance is the 3k (OCRWC) or a Spartan Sprint event (5k), it is therefore realistic for most to be able to schedule more short distance events as "A" races than it would be an Ultra as the short course events *should* take less of a physical toll and you should be able to recover significantly faster (this is of course very individual as some will take longer than others to recover) Final Takeaway: try and identify 2 major events per season that are spaced far enough apart that they will allow for at least 6-10 weeks of focused build up. These will be your "A Races" or "Goal Races". The rest of your calendar will revolve around these 2 events.
Step 2: Determine secondary "B and C Races"
After you have identified your primary "A" races, you can now plan your remaining "B and C" races according to this goal. "B and C" races simply mean they are not your goal event and are therefore secondary/tertiary in importance. On a scale of importance from 0 to 5, "B and C" races may be a 1-3/5 importance. This means you will likely not put in a focused 6-10 weeks (including taper) towards these events. Instead, you will use these as training races, meaning you will simply replace a weekend training session (or two) with these "B and C" races. If you have OCR simulations in your schedule, you would remove them and they would be replaced with these training races. It's important to note that you may not arrive at these secondary events feeling 100% fresh. This is because you will be "training through" this race, meaning you will still do your other workouts during the week (run, strength, grip, etc) and will arrive at race day unrested/untapered. Therefore, you likely will arrive at the event with a certain level of accumulated fatigue that you would not have at an "A" race. Don't panic! This is normal. The purpose of these "B and C" races are simply to get real world practice on race terrain , practice on obstacles that you might face during your goal event, and determine points of strength/weakness that should be addressed ahead of your goal race(s). An example of scheduling a "B or C" race would be running a Spartan Sprint course in the leadup to your final short course/sprint "A" race(s), making sure you do not truly race at 100% effort too close to your goal event (ex: 7-14 days before). These "B and C" race doesn't necessarily even need to be 100% conducive to your end goal to be good practice: For example, if your "A" race is an Ultra but your upcoming "B-C" race is a Sprint, there is still value in attending the Sprint as a training run. The effort and intensity wouldn't be the same during the Sprint as it would be during the Ultra, however, many of the obstacles present during the sprint will also be present during the Ultra therefore giving you added practice on obstacles you will face at your goal event. If your goal event is the Ultra and the upcoming race is a Sprint you can even look into purchasing multiple laps and try to run as many laps as possible in a given time frame in order to accumulate "time on feet" in a real race setting (rather than trying to simulate this in training). Instead of spending perhaps only 30-60 minutes on course for a single Sprint, you can multiply this duration/distance by 3 or 4 times by running multiple laps (with the proper approval of course) depending on your speed. Below you can see an example of a weekly training schedule in which an athlete is building up to OCRWC 3k ("A" race) but has "B and C" races that fall within the 6 week preparation window. This athlete will participate in the "B and C" events, but will remove a weekend run/race simulation and replace this session with their weekend event. As this is their major event of the year, the week following the OCRWC 3k would be a recovery week in which they only perform easy, maintenance work.
Step 3: Plan for recovery
When building your season try to keep recovery in mind, especially if racing frequently during the early parts of the season with your goal event being at the end of the season (September-October). Many experts suggest it is hard to truly peak more than 1-2 times (perhaps 3 times depending on the event) per season, so keep this in mind if you are starting to race early (February-March) and your major goal race is at the end of the season. This means that you may even have to plan for a mid season deload/recovery where you take 1 week to drastically cut training volume in order to reset. Listen to your body and don't be afraid to pull back training volume/stress and add in more recovery days if you are feeling sluggish and tired despite proper sleep, nutrition, and hydration. The easiest way to destroy your performance at an end of season event is to not allow yourself enough time to recovery from a demanding event earlier in the season. There is no "hard rule" for recovery, but many experts suggest 1 day of rest per 2-5km raced (1.25-3 miles). By keeping this loose framework in mind, you can see that after a Beast distance (21km/13 miles), it may be suggested to take even 4 days of recovery*. We would also suggest considering duration of racing and not just the distance on paper: although a Beast may only be 21km/13 miles, if it took you 10 hours, you may need more recovery than someone who was only on their feet for 3 hours. Furthermore, if you notice that you are still feeling tired, slow, and sluggish after a week of active recovery, do not be afraid to extend this recovery period. There is not strict rule on how long recovery will take. Be flexible with your schedule. *Recovery doesn't necessarily have to mean no movement/activity. Consider light, low impact movement to promote blood flow and mobility (walking, cycling, swimming, yoga, etc).
Having trouble designing your 2023 season? Click the link below to check out our 1 on 1 personalized running and OCR training plans and let US do all think planning and thinking for you!
Have question about our training plans or building your 2023 season? Send us an email: outlawocr@gmail.com.