Recently, I ticked off my two A races for the season. Well, technically, they were adventures (running 100-kilometer on trail, then running the La Cloche Silhouette Trail at Killarney Provincial Park). And of course, the minute we were out of the woods at La Cloche, I was already thinking about what was next. This might be partially because June is also my birthday month so historically, I use this month as a bit of a reset regardless of my race schedule. But I realized that a lot of the time, most people (myself included) finish our A Race and feel… a little lost.
Maybe you finish and you’re looking forward to a break, or a vacation, or a recovery week. But I also think it’s a great time to think about it as almost a New Year’s moment, a time to reflect back, look forward, and think about using the time to make some bigger changes in your life/training. Rather than jumping right back into standard training (unless, of course, you do have another A race to prep for), I think it’s worth thinking about what’s been working and what hasn’t been working.
For example, for me, I’ve known for a while that once I finished those two adventures, I wanted to reset to a more balanced Consummate Athlete-y lifestyle that had more strength, more yoga, and more bikes involved. I put a lot of those things on the back burner or severely minimized them in prep for both events, and in the tapering phase. But I realize that the stronger all-around version of me includes strength training and biking, and those armor me from more typical running injuries.
That’s not to say my training plan was wrong, at all. It was just laser-focused. It needed to be.
And now, I get this awesome chance to reset, think about next goals, and enjoy the recovery.
In short, once your A race is in the books, don’t just go back to status quo. Maybe you will, maybe what you were doing before was awesome. But you owe it to yourself to pause and reflect on:
- What you loved about your training leading up to the race
- What you hated about your training
- What cross training you missed
- What cross training you were glad to give up
- What lifestyle factors were improved (i.e did you make more time for sleep?)
- What lifestyle factors were … not improved (i.e you were eating a ton of simple carbs to stay fueled for big miles but haven’t had a veggie in weeks)
- Who do you want to be in six months from now, as an athlete
This may lead to some shifts in training. It may not. But either way, pause, reflect, and remember to give yourself a pat on the back and celebrate the wins!
And if you haven’t checked our book, Becoming A Consummate Athlete, we talk a TON about goal setting in the long and short term. You can grab it right here:
