What NOT to do before your first half Ironman – Race week dos and don’ts from a triathlon coach

You’ve done the work. Hours and weeks of training have been ticked off. You will have dealt with good days, bad days and everything in between. You might have spent many sessions dreaming of crossing the finish line. And others trying to keep the pre-race nerves and fears at bay. And now, finally, race week is here and it’s time to get ready to toe the start line.

The week before the race can be very stressful, as you balance all the pre-race logistics with the heady mix of nerves and excitement. You can’t gain much more fitness during race week. But there are plenty of mistakes you can make that will hamper your performance. To help you avoid some of the common pitfalls that cause many a triathlete to fall at the final hurdle, let’s take a look at the race week dos and don’ts.

What to do during race week

First let’s start with what you should be doing during race week to set yourself up for success, before we move on to the mistakes to avoid!

Trust your training, don’t start trying to cram in final hours or hard sessions. Your body needs time to absorb the load, freshen up and prepare for what’s to come.

Eat simple low fibre foods. You want your stomach to be in a good place, a simple diet high in carbohydrate, low in fat will set you up well for race day. It’s a good idea to increase carbohydrate intake but don’t go overboard!

Recce the course! This one can be hard if you’re travelling late or the roads used for the race course are busy with traffic outside of race day. This is where ROUVY is perfect! The virtual cycling platform is packed full of real life triathlon race routes, so you can ride key sections and know where to push or back off.

Do some light training. Tick the legs over, do some light training and stay fired up. You won’t need a full rest week with no activity at all, as this may leave you feeling lethargic and sluggish for race day! It’s important to strike a careful balance between resting up and staying mobile.

Try to relax. Any mental stress or excessive nervous energy will fatigue you just like training. The big day is coming but be confident in your preparation. Remember why you are racing, for the challenge and enjoyment.

Pack your gear early. You don’t want to stress about where are your shoes or gels the night before the race. Have your race bag set up ready to go and add/take away from it in the week as needed.

Go to the race briefing. Read the website, check the course and the maps. You need to know where you are going, what time you need to be where. Write all of this down to avoid last minute stress rushing around.

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What NOT to do during race week

So those are the things you want to make sure you’re doing. But here’s what you need to try and avoid so that last minute stress or gear changes don’t ruin your race experience!

Start trying new equipment! New run shoes? New googles? New wetsuit?! By now everything should be tried and tested. You should know if your shoes fit, your socks are easy to pull on and that your wetsuit zip pulls up to release. Resist the temptation to panic buy new gear – you need to test out everything extensively in training to be confident it won’t cause you issues on race day.

Spend too much time on your feet. With the expo, racking the day before and side events it can all quickly add up and before you know it you’ve walked miles when you should have had your feet up. Make sure you plan to have time POST race to see the race location. The days, before rest is your best friend.

Obsess over the weather. Yes you should check it and be prepared for race day. But you can’t control the weather, so stressing about it won’t help you. Accept that it’ll be what it will be. All you can do is have gear with you to be prepared for all eventualities.

Arrive too late to the race venue. If you’re racing far away from home then ideally, you want to have a couple days before your race at the location so you can familiarise yourself with the layout, the routes and where the transitions are. If you’re flying you also want a few days buffer just in case your bike doesn’t arrive or luggage goes missing.

Change your routine or plan. It’s good to have a plan of what you need to do each day before the race, and stick to it. Just because the person stood next to you in the registration line says they’re doing a 2hr ride the day before the race doesn’t mean you should! Blinkers on, this is your race. Stick to the routine you know works for you.

Freak out at everyone else’s equipment or set ups at bike racking. Just because someone has a super expensive bike doesn’t mean they have better prepared legs than you. It’s easy to compare and feel inferior, but trust what you have, what you’ve trained with and have belief.

Forget to enjoy the whole experience! You have trained hard, worked towards a goal and now its here. This is the fun part and you want to look back and remember the day. There will be highs and lows but never give up, push yourself and cross that finish line. There aren’t many feelings like it.

Get more race day tips…

How to pace a hilly middle distance bike course

Tips for riding into a head wind

Brownlee brothers on race day mistakes and how to avoid them

Get race ready with our pick of the best tri suits, wetsuits and our top-rated triathlon swimming goggles

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Written by

Andrew Woodroffe

Andrew Woodroffe is a performance triathlon coach and long-distance triathlete. With over 10 years in the sport, he’s coached some of the best junior and senior athletes in the UK and Europe.

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