You spend many hours a week training for your sport and spend very little time mentally preparing for race day, which of course is very important on race day as its 100% a mental aspect. I decided to write this blog to help you prepare your body and mind for race day.

You spend many hours a week training for your sport and spend very little time mentally preparing for race day, which of course is very important on race day as its 100% a mental aspect. I decided to write this blog to help you prepare your body and mind for race day.

Firstly when you are training for an event you are generally motivated to be the best version of you on race day and this helps fuel motivation for training for the event regardless if your training for a PB or just to complete the race. By having this motivation and training for a race is already preparing you for race day. Setting goals is a great way to prepare and keep you motivated.

Telling yourself you can do this and you have trained for this will prepare you for race day and helps you to think positive. Positive thoughts not only motivate you but if you believe in yourself you are already half way to achieving your goals. The importance of positive thoughts not only helps you focus on the race but allows you to believe you can do it. If you think negative on race day or in your training you will set yourself up to fail and of course you don’t want that. I always think positive and even if times are hard whether its training or in a race I tell myself I can do this and this goes a long way.

Of course, on race day you will be nervous but I find control what you can control and anything else don’t worry about. Try not to stress about things because this will just make you stressed and panic and you don’t need to waste energy.

Preparing your body for your race is important, firstly you need to train for your event and by doing so you are already mostly there. The next thing is you need to decide what fuel you will take on race day and on the race and practice with that leading onto the race. Don’t try anything new on race day as that can be a disaster, stick to what you know. Get plenty of sleep leading up to the race as you might struggle the night before the race, make sure you taper for it and have a rest the day before race day.

The above is probably the easy bit but the mental side will be harder. Your mind will play so many tricks with you before a race and try to get negatives thoughts into your head; you need to block these out and ignore them. So my advice is trust your training, vison what you want to do and you crossing that line the way you want to. During the race tell yourself you can do it really helps and goes a long way. If I am struggling I reassure myself I can do it and it helps push me a little more and then enjoy your result.

Be vary of what people say to you on race day, sometimes without knowing someone might say something not intentionally and your mind could turn this into a negative. For example, someone could say “I haven’t trained for this” and end up still doing well. Just don’t let your mind play tricks and have confidence you can do it from your training.

Practice positive thoughts on race day and controlling what you can control and anything else outside of your control don’t worry about it. These are things that help me and I hope you find this blog helpful.

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Yiannis Christodoulou

NHS Performance analyst from Canterbury

Age group: 40-44
Club: Canterbury Harriers, Ashford Triathlon Club, GB Age group team, Age group 2017 Aquathlon team captain
Coach: My self in running Level 2 coach in running fitness, Craig Coggle Strength coach, John Wood Swimming coach

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olympic distance triathlon

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