How to get ready for your big race
by Martin Marinov
What is a big race?
Of course, most of you will agree a big race for canoeing it is the Olympic final. But…, how many can go to the Olympics and how many can be at the Olympics final? The answer is — Very few.
That doesn’t mean other athletes do not have a big race in their life. Everyone should prepare at least for one big race every season!
Someone will say — I train just to lose weight, other will say that is not a professional athlete, does not want to have a big race or does not want to have any races, others will say they are veterans… Everyone will be right.
My suggestion to all of you is to race and to have at least one big race planned each season. I call it a Target.
When you have a target, you are more motivated to train when you are tired, when the weather conditions are not nice. The Target makes you more determent, pushes you to find a time for training during your busy daily schedule, makes you a different person.
Without a goal, without a target, without competitions, without races your level of training will be just average. You have to challenge yourself and what is better challenge than a competition?
Sport is adaptation and constant improvement. The improvement is over many areas — physical, technical, tactical, mental, skills, experience, etc. This is the reason why athletes are better with the age. More years in the sport, more improved they are at different areas.
If your goal is Olympic Games, then you have 4 years for preparation. You need long term planning for 4 years. It is a mistake every year to focus on the same thing. For example, if you need to change your technique, you need to do it at the beginning of those 4 years. To change the technique, you have to put the physical development on hold and just focus month after month on technique change.
Other example, if you need to bulk-up (to get stronger), you need different GYM and on-water training for some month. You have to reduce the endurance work because endurance and strength do not go hand by hand. Improving one of them is reducing the other. It is clear, if you want to bulk up, it can not be left to the last moment but needs to be taken care years before your main goal.
Coming to the main competition of the season (your big race), it doesn’t matter how well you have planned the training, it doesn’t matter how hard you have been trained, you always will feel you are unprepared, and you need more time to get ready. You have to accept it — the improvement and adaptation are endless processes, unless you are perfect (which no one is).
From the above is clear that coming to every competition you have to accept your current level. Then you have to maximise your current potential and use it 100%.
Using the training generator for the main competition you will be in a good physical shape. As I said before, you always will know you can be better, but you need to accept your current level and to maximise your current potential.
To get to your best current physician condition the training generator will reduce the training volume for last 3 weeks before the main competition. Please remember — reducing the volume but not the intensity and the quality of the training. You cannot just do nothing to freshen up. You have to get fresher with load reducing but at the same time you have to be ready to race at your best and at very high intensity. Only rest will not help you to feel good at racing pace.
During last weeks before your big race it is very fine balance between training volume and training intensity. Too much training will not help you. Whatever you have done during the year — you have done it, you cannot improve your potential during last days. You only can tune it up and maximise usage of your potential. Too little training also is not good because at your races you paddle at your maximum, also competitions are not just one race but minimum few races. You have to be ready for maximum paddle of few races.
That why the generator will reduce the volume for not very long period but will keep the intensity of the training, which you will need for racing days.
Once you get fresher your technique also will improve. You have to be careful of the technique change — improvement is OK but be careful not to do something wrong when you feel fresher.
It is very useful if you know what the competition schedule will be and try to mimic it last weeks. You need to get to competition routine. For example, try to go to bed every night at similar time you will do during the competition. Same for wake up in the morning — do it similar what you will do for the race day.
You also have to establish routine before, during and after training. For example, do not do for competition warm up and warm down different that what you do at training. If you want to do something different, please try it first at training. Do not experiment during your main competition. It is very simple and important rule.
Reducing the training volume during last 3 weeks will reduce your energy usage. You will need less food to refuel the used energy. You have to reduce what you eat. It should be the same as the training — reduce the volume but keep the quality of each meal. Many athletes continue eating like during heavy training blocks and put some weight on, which can be a disaster for the competition specially for female athletes.
Reducing your body weight helps a lot for your big race. Reducing the body weight has to be done very careful over long period. For males who can lose weight easily, that period should be around 6 weeks. For females and boys that can’t lose body weight easily, the period should be longer — between 3 and 6 months before the main competition.
