Race Week Preparation

Fitness is mostly decided in the months before race week. What happens in the seven days before the start line decides whether that fitness actually shows up on the day.

Tapering: less volume, not less intensity

The biggest taper mistake is cutting everything — volume and intensity together — which leaves legs feeling flat and sluggish rather than sharp. The better approach drops overall training volume meaningfully while keeping some short, race-intensity efforts in the legs, so the neuromuscular system stays switched on right up to race day.

Logistics decided early, not the night before

Travel time, sleep disruption, unfamiliar food, and race-morning logistics are all controllable stressors that become uncontrollable when they're left until the last minute. Deciding travel plans, accommodation, and race-morning timing early in race week — not the night before — removes decisions that otherwise eat into the mental energy you want available for the race itself.

Fuelling in the days before

Carbohydrate loading matters more for longer events than shorter ones, but some increase in carbohydrate intake alongside the taper's reduced training load is broadly useful across most endurance disciplines — the goal is starting with full glycogen stores, not starting the event already running on empty from a normal training-week diet.

A pacing plan, written down

Deciding pacing strategy mid-race, under fatigue and adrenaline, tends to produce worse decisions than deciding it beforehand with a clear head. A simple pacing plan — target effort by segment, a plan for what to do if the start goes out too hard — replaces a stressful in-race decision with a rehearsed one.

Managing the nerves

Pre-race nerves are a normal subjective signal, not a sign that something is wrong — most athletes who report feeling "flat" and calm before a big race actually perform worse than those with some nervous energy. Race week preparation isn't about eliminating nerves; it's about removing every controllable source of stress around them, so the only thing left to manage on the day is the race itself.