Episode 59: Event Prep Series #1 – Early Season Racing

Racing is back in 2021! We just returned from a 6 week stint on the road traveling to races with the WE Development XC MTB Team and have plenty to share and discuss surrounding racing. The last 6 weeks and 9 races have left racing topics, like event preparation and managing stress & logistics to warm-ups, nutrition and fueling, fresh in our minds. With so much info to share, we’ve decided to do a six-episode series, with 6 shorter episodes released in rapid succession over the next two-weeks to cover all the topics. We hope you join us and get yourself prepared to race in the coming weeks of the new season… with that, let’s dig into topic #1: Early Season Racing and the value in lower priority “C & B” events in the build up towards your “A” event. In this episode we first cover all the racing we’ve done along with our WE Development Team in Arizona, Puerto Rico and Arkansas over the past weeks. Get our takes and anecdotes on the Cactus Cup MTB Stage Race, the first UCI XCO events of the season at the Tropical Challenge and Continental (PanAM)Championships, and the first truly “euro-style” modern XCO race track racing at the back-to-back OZ Trails US Cup XCO events in Fayetteville, AR. After that we discuss the reason for, and value in, including some early season racing into your build up towards your main event. The discussion includes “blowing out the system” and getting those first really hard efforts in your legs & lungs; why the first races of the season typically feel so hard; how racing can be the best form of training; and getting, or regaining, your feel for racing with fast starts, bumping elbows, following surges and attacks, and all the obstacles that inevitably occur on race day. Then there’s the race readiness side of things that include gaining more experience in the logistical processes like equipment choices, bike tuning, warm-ups, fueling and travel that you want to have dialed before your A event. Join the conversation on these topics in this show as well as the following five “mini-episodes” that will be released rapid succession over the next several days as you prepare yourself to race this 2021 season! Looking for assistance in dialing in your 2021 training? Check out our downloadable training plans on Training Peaks, or consider having us create a Custom Training Plan for you. See links below for more info… —————————————————————————————————— Within the Waite Endurance Podcast we share our successful training strategies surrounding endurance cycling from Base Building to Race Preparation to Race Day!  Listening to our regular podcast will provide valuable insights into the weekly, monthly and annual training objectives that we prescribe to our WE Development Team and the hundreds of athletes we coach and train in Denver, Colorado and around the globe. Tune in each week to learn concepts you can apply to your own training program to help you maximize your endurance performance. Training Plans. We have training plans created to help you build your base fitness (Base Builder) and sharpen your racing fitness (Race Prep) with progressive training concepts to have you reach your peak performance. Our training plans are available via Training Peaks here: https://waiteendurance.com/stock-training-plans/ ** Plan Discounts for Podcast Listeners. Use code BASEBUILDER25 to receive 25% off any of our downloadable Base Builder Training Plans. Or use code RACEPREP25 to receive 25% off any of our downloadable Race Prep Training Plans. Use codes at checkout on TrainingPeaks.com  ** Training Plan Subscription Service. Available now to our podcast listeners! Gain access to our entire training plan library you can work through all of our plans with one low monthly fee. Switch between Base Builder, Race Prep, Booster plans and back to Race Prep as you need to fit your specific training and racing goals. And as we create new plans, you have access to those as well! Join for as little as $20 per month and cancel anytime!   https://waiteendurance.com/training-plan-subscriptions/ Join our WE Development Programs. Join the junior XC mountain bike focused WE Devo Team from anywhere in the country with our new 8-month online training program building towards XC MTB Nationals in 2021; OR apply for our UCI-focused WE National Teamprogram to take your training and racing to the highest level towards National and World Championships! Watch Us on YouTube. Check out our YouTube Channel for all our VLOG, training related videos and other fun content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyTPKJuJ996z52xbH7fvyLw/playlists?view_as=subscriber Follow us on our Instagram:  @waiteendurance @codywaite @kathywaite Send Us Your Questions and Comments.  Email either Coach Cody at [email protected] or Coach Kathy at [email protected] The post Episode 59: Event Prep Series #1 – Early Season Racing appeared first on Waite Endurance.