Race Evaluation

Posted: June 13, 2011 by TriFREAKS

By Wayne Kurtz

Well you finished a key race and my question for you – did you write done your post race re-cap or summary?  It’s such an important part of the taining / learning process many athletes just move on to recovery and then back at it again.

It’s very important to not only reflect on the race but to actually write down a summary that can be used as a tool in the future to review.  As we all know, making mistakes are fine in all aspects of life but the key is to learn from them and never make the same mistake twice.  This is especially true in racing.

Consider spending just a few minutes and write down in your training guide, journal or just a word document answers to the following questions.

1. What were the specific goals of the race?   Did you meet your goals?
2. What area of the race did you struggle?    How did you push through it?
3. Whatare 3 items will you incorporate into your training program to have a better race in the future?
4.  What are you going to do improve your performance even if you had a personal record?  Did you have a written mental strategy in place similar to your race strategy with respect to nutrition, pacing, etc?    If not, write out a mental strategy.
5.  What strategy worked to ensure you got through the aid stations quickly and not wasted valuable time?

There are many other questions that you can ask yourself or summarize.   Area’s to consider in your post race summary include, nutrition strategy, negative split accomplishment, any injuries, clothing (what did you wear, was it appropriate for the conditions), how did you get your mind to not go into the “marathon shuffle”.  It’s important to reflect on your accomplishment and in the future make changes if necessary.  For those of you who set PR’s then write down exactly what you did and repeat it again for your next race!

 
Wayne Kurtz is founder of RaceTwitch.com and Endurance Racing Report,  he has a lifelong passion for racing in various endurance sport races throughout the world. He is also the author of: ‘Beyond the Iron, a training guide for ultra-distance triathlons.’