25/02/2021
A training tip from our sponsor Vantage Point Endurance. Hopefully you got the rest you needed after your race!!
Importance of Racing to the Endurance Athlete
The importance of racing? What??? Since when does a coach say that racing is important? Well here’s the reason why.... racing forces athletes to do something they won’t do on their own, REST! Why? Because when you are in a training block, you have to rest and after a race you’re tired and your body doesn’t give you any other option. I’m not talking about virtual marathons, Ironman’s or any other “fake race”. In fact, these are more the culprit due to them happening with such frequency, lack of preparation and again.... lack of proper recovery after the “race”.
To say the last 12 months have been a s&%t show would be the understatement of the century. Races have been cancelled anywhere from 3 months to 3 days before race day. With every cancellation came the desire to find another race, and another.... and another. Each time knowing deep down the race would likely cancel and each time gearing up for the next race that would also get cancelled. Worse, is the lack of giving our bodies the rest that comes after the race because the race never happened. Your body doesn’t just need rest from the race, it needs it from the grueling training block you just went through. The race is just the exclamation point on the training block..... validation of how well you trained.
Unfortunately, with each frustrating cancellation athletes dropped their coaches and decided to go at it alone. This led to non~stop zwift races, weekly virtual IM’s, weeks without a rest day and most days 2 workouts per day. Nothing was managed. Every workout was full steam. With everyone working from home, meeting with our friends for a run or a zoom zwift ride was our only social interaction. It wouldn’t take long for bodies to break down and injuries to take over. Most would fight through because of fear of losing fitness, only for the injuries to make it impossible to go on.
This isn’t the story of one athlete. This is the story of athletes from every known endurance sport. If covid wasn’t enough to hurt us, now we’re hurting ourselves. I’ve seen more sub-elite athletes getting injured the past few months than I have the past 5 years combined. If there’s one thing elite athletes know can destroy their hopes and dreams, it’s the absolute inability to train, and the only way they continue their training is through proper rest and recovery. Age group athletes just aren’t doing this the way they should. Now this isn’t blaming the victim.... this is addressing an epidemic in our sport that can strike at a moments notice. No contact tracing or social distancing can prevent this one, it’s just your body saying ENOUGH!
If you are fighting injuries or haven’t been properly resting the past 12 months, what should you do? Well for one, get any injuries treated by a professional. Most minor injuries will heal with the normal therapies of ice, compression, foam rolling and rest. If it’s not going away, see a professional. There is nothing worse than a chronic injury.
If you just haven’t taken a break, well take one. Signs that you are on the verge of training injuries are: higher heart rates than you are used to, more sore than normal, not getting good sleep, loss of appetite or over-eating, weight loss or gain with no change in diet, and an inability to hit target paces during workouts. If any of this is happening, it’s a sign you can be overtrained. OTS (Over-Training Syndrome) at it’s best will cause you to have soft tissue injuries like pulled muscles or tendonitis. At its worst, you could be looking at weeks to months of just not wanting to train anymore. If any of this is happening, take a week off, maybe more. Force yourself to get more sleep (don’t underestimate the power of a mid-day nap). Got a race coming up? Well getting some rest now is way more important than training a tired, injured body.
Adding rest into your workout plan, usually one day off per week and 1 week recovery after 3 weeks of training, will do wonders for your longevity in endurance sports. If you are currently self-coaching and have questions, there are many coaches out there that do consultations without forcing a training plan on you.
With any luck we will be getting back to normal sooner than later. The days of putting together a race schedule and sticking to it are sorely missed. Hopefully this tip will get you to the starting line of your next race as healthy and injury free as possible.
