Race practice

If you're training for a big event, the benefits of race practice cannot be understated. Okay. I realise that's hardly a new or radical theory, but I'll explain why I believe it's important, especially for diabetics.

Race practice is helpful in taking away some of the unknowns for the big race day. Some of the race day variables to solve revolve around nutrition, including what to eat before the race and what food and drinks work for you during the race. Another dilemma is what pace you can maintain throughout the race, which is more challenging in multisport events such as triathlon or adventure racing where you may have stronger and weaker legs to consider.

There are a number of ways to gain race practice. You may find a low key local race to get the true race experience. You can hold back a little to make sure you can keep training on the following days without needing a whole week to recover. You can use these events to trial your eating plan or to see how fast you can go. They also act as good practice to ensure you have a complete checklist of equipment to take on your 'real' race day.

Another way I like to prepare for a big race is to simulate racing in a training session. This is a cheaper method and also won't take up your whole day. If training for a triathlon, find a pool that has a good cycle time trial course nearby and somewhere to run. It's a bonus if the pool is safe and friendly enough for you to leave bikes lying around while you do the swim and run legs. The cycle circuit needs to be traffic friendly so you can get into a rhythm without taking risks.

I like to use the same circuit a few times throughout a training plan, so I can compare how I am going and see my progression as I get closer to race day.

As a diabetic, race practice helps to balance another variable - my insulin doses - with my effort level and nutrition intake. As I'm about to undertake my longest race since my diabetes diagnosis, I can only use past races as a bit of a guide and I'm using longer training sessions to try to take away some of the unknowns.

This morning's training session involved full race distance cycle on my race bike with my planned race day nutrition on board and wearing my race clothes. I followed it with a short run but carried exactly what I plan to carry on race day (a blood glucose monitor and two small bottles to carry gels). I wanted to make sure everything would sit okay in my pockets while I ran.

Training is going to plan so far, but I can see it's about to get crazy at work, so it is going to be a challenge to keep fitting in lunch time swim squad.

Training groups

It's been awhile between posts - I've been busy at work, training hard and making the adjustments necessary to get the most out of my insulin pump. All this doesn't leave much time for blogging!

This week I wanted to talk about my training groups. I try to get a balance between coached, solo and informal group training and I find that works for me.

I've started swimming with one of the state's top swim coaches who happens to run one of the most successful triathlon squads. Swimming is the discipline that benefits most from technique and efficiency improvements in a triathlon and there is no better way to get those improvements than in a swim squad.

Once a week I run with a running group lead by a running coach. This session is all about building leg speed and strength and, more importantly, learning pace judgment!

I do the rest of my running on my own, which is great practice  for race day when it is ultimately up to you to provide the motivation and focus to have a great race.

I also like to do my cycle efforts on my own to practice self discipline and motivation.

And finally, my favourite sessions, my long rides and some of my long runs are generally with a group of good friends without a coach. It's much easier putting in the long miles if you are having a good time with friends with similar motivation to you.

Also, my thoughts on the diabetes implications. It's always good to have training companions to help you out if your blood sugars start to dive. Make sure your training buddies recognise the signs of a hypo and they know what to do.

For solo training sessions, ensure you are disciplined with testing your BGL and always carry extra fast acting carbs. I find energy gels are good because they will last if you don't need to use them. (Unlike a mixed sport drink).