# Beyond the A Race: How to Peak Twice in a Triathlon Season | Ep 503

An episode of [Oxygenaddict Triathlon Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/951501034), 21 Aug 2024, 19 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/ea99f7d8/podcast/play/90683661/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2024-7-20%2F385077848-44100-2-68c2d2e347ae8.mp3

In this episode, discover five invaluable tips to keep your triathlon season exciting and productive after your first A race. Learn how to strategically approach the rest of your year, whether it involves planning for another peak race, maintaining fitness through fun events, or focusing on specific training areas. Get advice on recovery periods, mindset shifts, and how to use your built-up fitness effectively. Perfect for seasoned athletes looking to prolong their athletic journey or those aiming to perform even better in their next race. * * * * * * * * SPONSORS * * * * * * * * Like what you heard in this show? Join hundreds of other age group triathletes making the most of their limited training time, training with Team OxygenAddict! http://team.oxygenaddict.com - The most comprehensive triathlon coaching program for busy age groupers. Join the Team Oxygenaddict waiting list and be the first to find out when a space becomes available: https://team.oxygenaddict.com/waiting-list * * * * * * * * * * * * precisionfuelandhydration.com Precision Fuel & Hydration help athletes personalise their hydration and fuelling strategies for training and racing. Use the free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised race nutrition plan for your next event. And then book a free 20-minute video consultation with a member of the PF&H Athlete Support Team to refine your strategy. Listeners get 15% off their first order of fuel and electrolytes with Precision Fuel & Hydration. Simply use this link and the discount will be auto-applied at the checkout. * * * * * * * * * * * * Watch on youtube Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

## Transcript

[0:02] Hello and welcome to the Oxygen Addict podcast.
[0:05] We're brought to you every week by our sponsors, Precision Fuel
[0:08] and hydration.com. You can personalise your
[0:11] fuelling and hydration strategy so you perform your best with
[0:14] 15% off your first order of electrolytes and carbohydrate
[0:18] fuel. The code Oxygen 24 at Precision
[0:21] Fuel and hydration.com. Welcome to the show, everybody.
[0:24] I'm your host, Coach Rob will be.
[0:26] And every week we've been you an episode of this podcast to help
[0:29] motivate and inspire you for your triathlon goals for this
[0:32] season. Listen, a couple of quick things
[0:35] you could do for us before we jump into today's episode.
[0:38] If you do like this episode, please consider following us on
[0:41] Spotify, our Apple Podcasts, and also if you're watching on
[0:45] YouTube, if you could like and subscribe, that would really
[0:48] help out the growth of the show. It helps the show get shown to
[0:51] more people by the algorithm on on the podcast players and on
[0:55] YouTube. So we'd really, really
[0:56] appreciate that. And secondly, if you're looking
[0:59] for help and advice with your triathlon training, please
[1:02] consider getting in touch with us.
[1:03] You can read all about what we offer at teamoxygenaddict.com
[1:07] and then you can e-mail us at help@oxygenaddict.com or there's
[1:11] a link in the show notes to book a call with me or one of the
[1:14] coaching team. We can discuss how we can best
[1:17] help you out with your triathlon goals for this season.
[1:21] On this episode of the show, we're going to be talking about
[1:24] 5 tips for a second peak in your season.
[1:28] Now this is a question that comes in quite often from our
[1:31] audience. It's something that comes in
[1:32] from our coached athletes and it's having built up all the way
[1:37] through the winter and aiming for an A race often that A races
[1:41] the summertime or early summertime.
[1:43] What can I do with the rest of my year?
[1:45] What should I do in terms of other events that I've got
[1:49] coming up? Can I do a second Iron Man?
[1:51] Can I do a second 70.3? So this episode is going to be
[1:55] all about some different ideas that you can use once you've had
[1:59] that first A race of your season and how you can get your mindset
[2:03] ready for how to approach the rest of the year.
[2:06] So first up, I think the first tip I've got for you is to have
[2:11] a A2 part approach to your season every year.
[2:16] The season is really, really long and your brain will really
[2:20] benefit from having that season broken up into two parts.
[2:24] And typically we find with athletes, it's very hard to have
[2:28] more than two peaks in a year. It's not to say you can't do
[2:30] more than two races in a year, but two absolute real peak goal
[2:36] races in each season seems to be about the most most athletes can
[2:41] deal with. You can have other races leading
[2:43] up to those a races, but it can really help if you, if you have
[2:47] say, I don't know if you were choosing Challenge Roth as your
[2:50] first race of the season in early July.
[2:52] Typically we've then got an entire blank calendar running
[2:56] all the way through till Christmas and athletes say to
[2:59] us, well, where do I go from here?
[3:01] What am I going to do? And, and typically athletes have
[3:04] been extremely focused, Iron Man and 70.3 athletes in particular,
[3:10] the very nature of having to enter that event so far in
[3:13] advance, a year in advance in a lot of cases means that we're
[3:16] incredibly focused on it. And it can often feel like
[3:19] there's a real void left behind once the a race has happened.
[3:23] So again, the purpose of this is to think about what can we do
[3:26] with the rest of the season. So I think the first thing to
[3:32] accept here and, and it's a real bonus for you is once you've
[3:36] done that first a race of the season, whether it's an Iron
[3:39] Man, whether it's a 70.3, but particularly if it's an Iron
[3:43] Man, you have incredible fitness.
[3:47] You've trained in a lot of cases for an entire year or more to
[3:51] get to the point of doing the Iron Man.
[3:53] Even in the case of 70.3, you're probably focused on it for six
[3:56] months. You're incredibly fit.
[3:59] Often times after a week or two of recovery or a week or two of
[4:04] downtime, it's not uncommon for athletes to say, I've lost all
[4:08] that fitness, I feel really unfit.
[4:11] And, and I think largely that's an effect of we just need the
[4:15] break mentally. We, we take our eye off the ball
[4:18] with the discipline. We've perhaps been very
[4:20] disciplined with nutrition and what we've been eating in the
[4:23] run up to the race. And obviously that's going to
[4:24] relax after the race. And so people can feel very
[4:28] unfit and and very out of shape and very undisciplined very
[4:32] quickly. Typically it takes less than two
[4:35] weeks to feel that way. So the first thing to remind you
[4:37] is that's not the case. It's mostly in your mind.
[4:41] You have a huge volume of fitness built up in your body
[4:43] and it hasn't gone anywhere. You may not feel very fresh, you
[4:47] may not feel as though you've done very much in the recent
[4:50] past, but all of that volume of fitness is in your body still.
[4:54] And the reason I'm pointing this out to you is to say you've got
[4:57] the opportunity to use that fitness to go and do lots of fun
[5:01] things, whether that is a second big a race in new season and
[5:05] make it a real focused second peak or whether it's lots of fun
[5:09] little events along the way. You've got the ability to go and
[5:13] do that. You don't have to do anywhere
[5:16] near the same volume or intensity or mental intensity of
[5:20] training to get yourself ready for this second peak or the
[5:23] second part of the season. You'll be capable of doing
[5:26] things simply because of the volume of training you've built
[5:28] up in your body. So that's the first thing I want
[5:31] to get across to you. The second part of your season,
[5:34] the pressure's off, you've done a tonne of work already.
[5:37] It's going to take a lot less training to maintain that
[5:40] fitness than it took to build it in the 1st place.
[5:43] So I think there's two main ways to approach this.
[5:46] Have a second day race or have a bunch of fun things that you
[5:52] want to do to go and make use of that fitness.
[5:54] So your second day race might be a second Iron Man, it might be a
[5:58] second 70.3. It might even be a triathlon of
[6:03] a shorter distance. But you've got the chance to go
[6:06] away and really focus yourself in again after you've had an
[6:09] appropriate break and get ready for that second big peak of the
[6:12] season. The 2nd way to approach this is
[6:15] to the have fun with your fitness approach to it and
[6:19] honestly it's something that I wish more people would do rather
[6:22] than throw themselves straight back into a second day race.
[6:25] I would love to hear more stories of athletes who say do
[6:28] you know what? I really focused on an Iron Man
[6:30] in the summer and I focused my training on it for six months,
[6:33] nine months, 12 months. I just decided to keep myself
[6:37] moving for the rest of the summer to still swim a bike and
[6:40] run, but to enter as many events as I fancied.
[6:43] Sprint events, pool sprints, open water sprints, Olympic
[6:47] distance events, running races, sport Eves, even in some cases
[6:52] we'll talk about ultra runs and marathons a little bit later on.
[6:55] I think they need a bit more of an A race focus.
[6:58] But any of those events that are up to and including the events
[7:01] you've already trained for, you can go and do, you can go and do
[7:04] local 5 KS and 10 KS. You can enter those sport eve
[7:08] events that you know, even in the in the context of someone
[7:12] who's trained up to three, 3 1/2 hours on the bike for 70.3 will
[7:17] be capable of doing a sportif that's much longer that
[7:20] definitely up to 70 miles, 80 miles, maybe even 100 miles
[7:24] without too much specific preparation.
[7:27] Because your body's trained to do a five hour, 6 hours, 7 hour
[7:31] event with that 70.3. So give yourself the permission.
[7:35] If you don't want to do a second day race, give yourself a
[7:38] permission to to not take these races too seriously, but to go
[7:42] out and do them just for the fun of doing them and and get a load
[7:46] of events under your under your belt.
[7:49] If you like to make use of that fitness.
[7:51] Because all too common is the athletes who are really focused
[7:54] on their a race and they might have AB race and the lead up to
[7:57] it. They would really love to do
[7:58] more races along the way, but especially in the case of Iron
[8:02] Man athletes, they're really, really focused on the fact they
[8:05] have to do a long ride and a long run each week.
[8:08] And it's really hard to recover from a high intensity shorter
[8:10] race if you're doing that. So if that sounds like that was
[8:13] you earlier in the season, give yourself permission to go out
[8:17] and do some fun things later in the second part of the season.
[8:21] So that's my first tip to you. Have a second peak, but have it
[8:24] either be a whole bunch of fun stuff or have it be an actual
[8:29] real second peak. Now the second tip I've got is
[8:34] around people who want to do marathons or ultra distance
[8:38] races. It's a really common question I
[8:40] get and it's usually phrased the opposite way round.
[8:44] It's usually people who are coming to us for coaching who
[8:47] want to do an Iron Man in the summer and they say I've already
[8:50] entered a marathon in the springtime, so I'll have the
[8:53] marathon in my legs. I won't have to worry about the
[8:55] marathon come race day at the Iron Man.
[8:57] My advice is always drop out of that spring marathon.
[9:01] Do a half marathon instead because we need you focusing on
[9:05] your bike volume and bike fitness during the springtime.
[9:08] It's really, really difficult, especially for first time iron
[9:12] men, to do a marathon effectively in the springtime
[9:17] and still do the effective kind of bike builds that you need to
[9:21] do at that time of year. So my advice is always and
[9:23] always will be not to do the spring marathon.
[9:26] However, if you've done a spring or summer Iron Man, the autumn
[9:31] time is the perfect time for you to go and do a marathon for the
[9:35] reasons we've mentioned earlier. You've got a tonne of fitness in
[9:38] your body. All of those miles that you did
[9:40] on the bike and to some extent the swim as well, are also going
[9:44] to count towards the aerobic fitness for the run.
[9:46] You've got a tonne of durability in your legs from all the run
[9:49] training you did for your Iron Man.
[9:51] Even if you've only in inverted comes down to 70.3, you've still
[9:56] got that tonne of fitness in your body and it can form a
[9:58] fantastic springboard for doing a marathon or an Ultramarathon
[10:03] during the second-half of the year.
[10:05] Now you can afford then to make that a much more run focused
[10:09] build. You can drop some of the bikes,
[10:12] you can drop some of the swims and you can have a much more run
[10:15] focus in there. Now, I personally would still
[10:17] advise our athletes. We still train like triathletes
[10:20] within team Oxygen Addict. I'm a big believer in using
[10:24] bikes to prepare for a marathon if we do it the effective way
[10:27] and it can be a great way that you can get additional volume in
[10:30] without overstressing your body with too much running and having
[10:33] to worry about overuse run injuries.
[10:36] But that being said, if you've been itching to go and do a
[10:40] marathon and you're really wondering, you know, I did a
[10:43] pretty good race here in this Iron Man and the marathon and
[10:46] that was pretty good. I wonder what I could have done
[10:48] on fresh legs. This is the perfect time for you
[10:52] to do that. September, October marathon
[10:54] means you can have an 8 to 12 week run build through to the
[10:58] marathon and be in really good shape to go and do that.
[11:01] You can even apply the same principles to an ultra marathon.
[11:05] Obviously the pressure is off you having to do quite as much
[11:08] in terms of bike volume at the time, and keeping some of those
[11:12] bikes in there can really help prepare you for the marathon or
[11:15] ultra marathon as well. So I'm a big, big fan of that
[11:18] forming a part of your second peak of the season if that's
[11:21] what you want to go and do. Now my third tip for you for the
[11:25] second part of the season is to change your focus.
[11:30] And by that I mean to change the focus of your training
[11:33] physically and to change the focus of your training mentally.
[11:37] We can't live in a pressure cooker for the entire year.
[11:40] And if you're anything like the athletes that we coach, we have
[11:43] a lot of type A personalities. A lot of people whose, you know,
[11:47] let's be honest, their real strength is their ability to ply
[11:51] themselves to a long term goal and hit the sessions day after
[11:55] day after day. But the drawback of that is it
[11:58] can feel like you're living under that constant pressure
[12:00] cooker, especially if you don't give yourself a little bit of a
[12:03] break at some point. So a change of focus here can be
[12:07] really good for your longevity in the sport.
[12:09] And you've heard me say my, my measure of success as a coach is
[12:13] how many of our athletes are still in the sport in 10 years
[12:16] time, not in two years time. If we can help athletes make
[12:21] short term yearly plans for their year that mean they stay
[12:24] fresh year after year after year and stay in the sport rather
[12:28] than burning out, then I think our job's done.
[12:31] So a change of focus here in your training can be really,
[12:34] really useful, I think. So something you can do to
[12:37] change your focus is rather than focusing particularly on a race,
[12:42] you can focus on one of your limiters.
[12:44] If you've really wanted to work on your swim, for example, the
[12:48] second part of the season is a great time to get some specific
[12:52] swim coaching to up the swim volume a little bit, to spend
[12:56] more time swimming in open water, to get some swim video
[12:59] analysis work done, to spend some extra time doing the drill
[13:03] work that'll help move your swim to the next level.
[13:06] For example, you can apply the same principles to your cycling,
[13:10] You can apply the same principles to your running, but
[13:12] you can change that focus away from getting your training plan
[13:16] done to focusing in on something specifically that you want to
[13:21] really, you know, improve on. There's also the element for
[13:26] some athletes, I I often with a small number of athletes, advise
[13:30] them to take a step back a little bit mentally to say,
[13:33] look, you've taken this a race really, really seriously.
[13:37] You put yourself under a tonne of pressure.
[13:39] There are a lot of sacrifices made.
[13:41] So the second part of the season is a time you can you can step
[13:44] back a little bit from giving yourself a really hard time
[13:47] about getting every single session done and just pay
[13:50] attention to other areas of your life.
[13:53] Ramp up the work a little bit more, spend a bit more time with
[13:56] the family, spend The Saturdays taking the kids to football or
[13:59] whatever it is you might have missed out on during some of the
[14:03] time you've been really focused on your training.
[14:05] Take that step back a little bit and take things a little bit
[14:08] less seriously. The flip of that is for some
[14:11] athletes who a race didn't go to plan for whatever reason, it
[14:14] might be an illness, injury, just life getting in the way.
[14:17] Might be a time for the second peak of the season to redouble
[14:21] your efforts and really focus in for a six to ten week period on
[14:26] really building to your second day race of the year and see
[14:29] what you can do if everything goes right for you.
[14:32] But either way, a bit of a change of focus from how things
[14:35] were earlier in the season can pay big dividends for your
[14:38] longevity in the sport. The next tip I've got for you is
[14:44] really important. It's the rest and recovery
[14:46] angle. It's making sure that after
[14:49] you've had a first peak of the season, you do take the time to
[14:52] have enough of a break to make sure you want to get back into
[14:56] training for the next peak. Now typically I'll advise
[14:59] athletes to have two clear weeks after their A race after an Iron
[15:03] Man will definitely schedule two weeks of a recovery period after
[15:07] a 70.3. Physically, I think you only
[15:09] need one week of a recovery period, but mentally do think
[15:13] it's worth making sure that you've had enough of a break
[15:17] from the focus training to feel as though you've stepped out of
[15:20] that self-imposed pressure cooker and feel like you're
[15:23] ready for the next phase of training.
[15:26] So honestly, a minimum of two weeks for athletes who've done
[15:29] Iron Man, maybe even up to four weeks.
[15:32] It's enough to make you feel rested and refreshed.
[15:35] I think your body will recover faster than your mind in a lot
[15:38] of cases. But the Iron Man Blues have got
[15:41] two parts to it. There's there's the getting over
[15:44] the physical fatigue part and there's the what am I going to
[15:48] do now? Now this big goal isn't on the
[15:50] horizon and the rest and recovery can be a really big
[15:54] part of working out where you actually want to go next.
[15:58] And the very last tip I've got for you here is once you've had
[16:03] this second peak of the season, make sure you've planned around
[16:07] enough time to leave a really decent end of season break.
[16:10] So if you're entering September or an October marathon, make
[16:14] sure you plan in the two to four week break that you're going to
[16:17] need before you apply yourself to the next winter training
[16:21] block. And I think that's really,
[16:22] really important. It would be my first principle
[16:25] if you're going to succeed next season and have this 10 year
[16:29] plus career in an age group, triathlon and athletics, we have
[16:34] to plan the seasons in a way that mean you'll be rested and
[16:37] refreshed ready for the next block of training.
[16:40] So make sure you've left enough time at the end of the year
[16:43] before you jump back into your winter training block.
[16:47] It's particularly important for athletes who are going out to
[16:49] race in Nees or Kona. Kona, particularly with it being
[16:53] in October and especially if you're doing a September or
[16:57] October marathon or ultra marathon, planning that minimum
[17:01] of two weeks and ideally 4 weeks of downtime.
[17:04] You don't have to do nothing during that time, but planning
[17:08] the downtime mentally as much as anything can really help rest
[17:12] and refresh and make sure you're ready for the the rest of the
[17:16] upcoming years in your triathlon career.
[17:19] So I hope that gives you some focus.
[17:21] I hope the athletes who've done their first a race of the
[17:24] season, they're kind of sitting here wondering what next.
[17:27] Hope that's given you some ideas where you can go and giving you
[17:31] some focus on how you can structure either a second real a
[17:35] race goal or a second part of your season with lots of fun
[17:40] endurance events that you can go out and really make use of the
[17:43] fitness that you've built over this time.
[17:46] OK, then that brings us to the end of this week's episode.
[17:50] So here are some discount codes and deals for you.
[17:52] Over at Precision Fuel and hydration.com, use the code
[17:55] Oxygen 24 for 15% off your first electrolyte order.
[17:59] And over at teamoxygenaddict.com, I think
[18:02] we've got the most comprehensive triathlon coaching programme for
[18:05] busy age groupers. If you've enjoyed what you've
[18:08] heard today and the advice has helped you out, well, great
[18:11] stuff. I hope that's helped put some of
[18:12] your fears at rest and I know from some of the calls we've
[18:15] had, it's helping raise the right questions in the minds of
[18:18] people as to whether their current coaching relationship is
[18:22] working for them. If you're looking for a change
[18:25] or if you're looking for high quality, proven coaching for
[18:27] Iron Man or 70.3 Triathlon this year, you can just check out the
[18:31] details of our coaching packages on our website at
[18:34] teamoxygenaddict.com. And then if you're interested,
[18:37] there's a link in the show notes below.
[18:39] You can join our waiting list and you'll be notified if a slot
[18:43] becomes available and at that point you'll have a chance to
[18:45] book a call with us and see if you'd be a good fit for joining
[18:49] the team. So although we don't have slots
[18:51] available at the moment, we'll make those call appointments
[18:54] available to people as and when. We do have athletes who end
[18:58] their coaching packages during the season if and when that
[19:01] happens. So remember there's links in the
[19:03] show notes so you don't have to remember them till next week.
[19:06] Have a great safe training and racing week.
[19:08] I'm coach Rob Wilby and you've been listening to the Oxygen
[19:11] Addict podcast. See ya.

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