Next weekend, I will compete in my final 50k ultra/trail race of the year. The race is literally called “The Bad Thing 50K”, and as the name suggests, it’s pretty bad…ass. The start of the race takes place in the early morning darkness, and it’s widely believed that the race is yet to be fully mastered by an elite athlete (no one has ever run under 4 hours). With my current level of fitness, there’s no reason why I can’t be the first. BUT, in order to do so, I’ve had to prepare to the fullest extent – and not just by running far distances or running fast workouts.

In order to be fully prepared for the demands of my race and make decisions on the day more automatic, I have maximized my time on my race course practicing all five corners: Technical (e.g. where to plant my feet on technical sections), physical (e.g. biomechanics of running uphill/downhill), psychological (how I will cope when things go wrong) and tactical (where to push and where to hold back). The social elements have come with conversations between myself and my coach, ensuring that relationship is maintained alongside a love for the sport. This is what I’ve done for each of my races this year: Around The Bay, Sulphur Springs, & Falling Water.

Tomorrow, I will wake up at the same time I would on race day, wear the same gear, eat the same thing I would on race day, travel to the course, and practice running on a difficult section of the course in the dark with a headlamp (just like on race day). This is my game-realistic training, and I’ve allowed for plenty of repetition surrounding the exact five corners I’ll experience on the day. 

These are the environments we need to set up for our athletes.

Repetition is essential. Think about what your athletes actually need to develop repetition around within your session topic. Do they need to develop repetition around a passing technique if your session topic is 1v1 defending? Is that restriction actually helping your session topic come to life – or is it limiting your athletes?

Yes, it’s impossible to always work on all five corners at once. That’s why even in endurance sports, different sessions throughout the week are focused on different stimuli. I might focus more on technical terrain one day, and more on top-end speed another day. Either way, the training is meant to be game-realistic and guided toward what I’m meant to accomplish on race day.

If I didn’t have access to my race course, I would train on terrain as similar as possible. I would find a similar elevation profile on long run days. I would still practice all the other elements (fuelling, pacing, etc.). I would replicate as many of the elements as I could, recognizing that it won’t be 100% the same.

The more race-specific we can make our training, the better. I’m still supplementing my training with mobility, strength work, form drills and a multitude of other aspects that might not be considered “game-realistic” or “race-specific”. Those little things add up over time to make race day mechanics easier. But they’re ultimately only supplemental aspects to the art.

If I only had 30 minutes to prepare for my next race, what would I do? If I only had 30 minutes to help an U8 soccer team nail a specific session topic in preparation for their next game, where would I spend my time?

Game-realistic training and repetition can be combined together. The best way to do so is by creating game-realistic activities that allow for repetition within your session topic, and include all the elements of your sport (not just the five corners). For invasion sports, that’s ball, opposition, teammates and space. Targets, movement and direction will all enhance game-realism too.

The more that the actual rules of the game apply, the better. So if you’re going to introduce a different method of scoring or a different method of the restart before you get into a game where all the rules of the game apply, it needs to bring out your session topic. Otherwise, you might be limiting the ability of your athletes to actually recognize optimal decision making on their game day (or race day).

Think about this and don’t get caught up in the traps of what your coaches did growing up. Try to incorporate all five corners into your training, and focus on making your training as game-realistic as possible.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

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