Irish Triathlon National Series Rankings June 2009

June 11th, 2009 by Gavin

national triathlon rankings

Coaching the Pack 2 days before and 2 days after

If The Pack take rest they take it 2 days before and then 2 days after !

Although there are active recovery sessions built into the programme and some sessions are not a stressful as others it is still important that we have extra rest before race day- there are no fitness gains to be made 48hrs before a race !

Ideally we take this rest 2 days before. So for a Saturday race we ‘try’ to take Thursday off – or at most a very very light session.

Our body has be drilled to excercise on a near daily basis so when it realises it doesn’t have any work to do it will try to shut down – “Heres a rest and I am making the most of it”.

Taking rest 2 days before a race allows us 24hrs to ‘switch our bodies back on’ in training so that when it comes to race day we do not feel slugglish, heavy or tired (sometimes symptons we feel after a day of inactivity)- we have had these sensations and dealt with them and now we are ready to rock.

The day after the race is a day for reflection and recovery. Our minds are still alive and thinking about the race but our bodies have been stressed to the max – we can use our emotions to energise the regeneration of our bodies through some active recovery – for example a short jog, light swim or easy bike ride. We are therefore speeding up our bodies recovery so we can damage it again sooner rather than later !

It is often 48hrs after the race that ‘our minds crash’ and our efforts finally catch up with us – and now is the time for a physical and mental break. Having a rest day now in-effect gives us a 48hr recovery period and should be enough to allow us to crack on with our training the following day feeling both mentally and physically refreshed