Ever wondered how to tackle your next race season with the gusto of a champion while still savoring every step? I'm Dana Jones, and I'm here to guide you through the maze of athletic training and racing, tailored to your personal intensity. In this episode, we dissect the psyche of various athlete archetypes – from the ultra-detailed warriors to the casual fun-run enthusiasts – offering you the playbook to align your racing ambitions with a satisfying, injury-free journey. Discover how to cherry-pick events that resonate with your inner competitor or your social butterfly wings, and learn how to lay out a race calendar that won't just chase the clock, but will bring joy to your soles and soul.
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
Ever wondered how to tackle your next race season with the gusto of a champion while still savoring every step? I'm Dana Jones, and I'm here to guide you through the maze of athletic training and racing, tailored to your personal intensity. In this episode, we dissect the psyche of various athlete archetypes – from the ultra-detailed warriors to the casual fun-run enthusiasts – offering you the playbook to align your racing ambitions with a satisfying, injury-free journey. Discover how to cherry-pick events that resonate with your inner competitor or your social butterfly wings, and learn how to lay out a race calendar that won't just chase the clock, but will bring joy to your soles and soul.
The Pain-Free Podcast is presented solely for general information, education, and entertainment purposes. Any information presented in this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional diagnosis. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. As always, users should not disregard or delay obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition that they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
Welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones. I am a certified personal trainer and I'm here to help you achieve your fitness goals without pain. In each episode, I'll share tips and strategies that will help you stay safe and pain-free while you're working out. I'll also interview experts in the field of fitness and pain management. So if you're ready to learn how to stay active and pain-free, then subscribe to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast today. Hi everyone and welcome to the Pain-Free Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, dana Jones.
Speaker 1:
So it is race season, so guess what race fans? It's time to start racing, and today we're going to talk about how to plan out your schedule and why it matters and all the things that are wrapped up in actually racing with other humans for either the shirt, the trophy, the medal, whatever it may be. So as I was thinking about this topic and I was kind of going back and forth, I was like all right. So I realized like there are different categories of athlete and I've dealt with all these different people as the years have gone as a fitness coach and it's been kind of entertaining. So in one aspect we have so I have four categories. Let me explain, right. So I have four categories that I've kind of laid out, and so category number one are the hardcore, also known as, like psycho intense people. They probably already have their events chosen. They're already in the midst of their training and the event is probably very intense and they could probably tell me what their training load, how many calories they eat a day, how many watts they're pushing on the bike and what their heart rate variability is and all the things. Right, because these people are intense and even though they have jobs, their second job is the event. So go you in terms of your intensity, all right. Category number two is our intense people, but they're your serious age groupers. These are the people that have their events chosen. They're starting training. They're not as intense as the psycho-intense people, but they are really shooting for that podium spot. So they're working out, they're doing all the things. They may be slightly discouraged by the rain or the cold, um, and they're also willing to be talked into anything by their friends. And you know, again, it's really about the metal, or I got third place in my age group, or whatever it may be.
Speaker 1:
Category number three is the semi-intense, aka um, I like a challenge kind of people. Uh, they're the ones that train most of the time and they're always looking for something new to pique their interest. So they can kind of be talked into anything Like oh, we're going to go ride 50 miles on the bike, okay, great, so they'll go do it. Or food may be a motivator for them, right? So if you go to an event that has great food, they're like yeah, I want to do that too. Or has beer or whatever it may be. So you know they're in there.
Speaker 1:
So last category is the not really intense, aka the fun-loving, slash, easy-going kind of racer. You may train but you love to show up for anything last minute. So you like doing the color runs, the fun 5Ks, the mud runs, you'll show up for something because it's the right cause. Like, I talk all my people into doing the girls on the run because girls on the run is lots of fun and young girls should learn how to be competitive in a fun loving atmosphere. And these people don't really like the competitive atmosphere. It kind of turns them off and I can understand that. Because I probably fit into this category now I think I would go. I would slide between, you know, number four and the semi-intense. Definitely. When I was younger, I liked the semi-intense because I think I had an idea that I was able to do a lot of things that I probably wasn't able to do, but I pulled them off Anyway.
Speaker 1:
So you have your personality type, whatever it may be, and then what type of event should you choose? So events are really pretty much laid out in three different categories, which is recreational events, events, competitive events and then the elite events. Um, you know the rec events are. You know the yearly, uh, you know saint patty's day 5k? Um, you know something like that. That is a low pressure race. People are nice, you different range of abilities. They may be family friendly. They're very welcoming for beginners, right, everybody can do it. It's really about doing your own personal best and really just enjoying the social atmosphere and feeling good, right, like.
Speaker 1:
So if you've never done something like this is a great couch to 5k area, right when you're. You know I just want to go out and maybe I don't want to be embarrassed or I don't want to have an opinion, you know, about what other people are doing. I just want to do my own thing and you know it may be a challenge for you or it may not. It just may be a good time. We have our competitive events, and those are the ones that you know. Athletes are shooting for performance goals, right, I want my personal best, I want to compete against other people, right, these are the. I want to hit the podium for my age group, right, and the atmosphere is a little bit different, right, so you could travel for this. Right, it could just be some local races if you're lucky, living in a populated area, or it could be regional stuff like oh, I'm going to fly down to LA to do this. Or, you know, people may be shooting for their national championship, whatever it may be. This is kind of where we see kids slash college, you know, like so high school slash college kind of athletes fit into this, as well as the age groupers that are really, you know, shooting to show improvement. And then, of course, you have your elite events and that's basically where everybody's at the top of their sport.
Speaker 1:
Something cool about running, and I would say, triathlon, is that all these athletes compete against one another. You know, when you go to a marathon and you're running a marathon, you're competing against elite athletes. You're competing against them in triathlon as well, and it's super cool to kind of see those different levels. Now, of course, for me as a race director, one of the biggest things is like don't be an asshole and you know if we're all here and you're doing your bit, you know kind of be happy, mind your business and just enjoy your race. But don't like poo, poo people that are struggling because you don't know why they're struggling. It may be the first time that they've ever raised, it may be, um, you know they have anxiety issues and so this is a big deal that they're doing something that they're not good at or they may not or may perceive themselves as not good at. So just kind of do your thing.
Speaker 1:
Unfortunately, you know, ironman has a really bad reputation of having some very elite athletes kind of be shitty and I don't know. I haven't run a marathon so I don't know what those races are like. I know, you know most of the stuff I've done has been in nothing more than a half marathon, so I haven't really dealt with those people who are mean. But I've heard from other people about running events where people have been kind of mean or elitist in their way. Ironman, unfortunately, because I volunteered, I had experiences with some of the athletes and they're not very nice and my thing is that if a volunteer is out there and they're supporting you during your event, you should probably be nice to them because they could not be there and you could not get your water or your snack or whatever. But you know, people are people and you know that's kind of why I created my own event is because I didn't want that atmosphere, and we'll talk more about that later.
Speaker 1:
All right, so why does it matter? If I choose an event Like can I just just show up somewhere and race, and you know, does it really matter? Well, you know there are things that you have to have um considered before you sign up for a race. One is like you know, um, where does it fit in my schedule? Um, you know, what is the distance, right? You know, if it's something that's long distance, it's going to take you a little bit longer to train your body to be able to accomplish that distance. What is the terrain, you know? Is it something where everybody lies? It's a flat course? Sometimes it's a flat course and sometimes it's not right. There's hilly, you know, whatever.
Speaker 1:
I remember last year we had a woman who came up for our race and she was from San Francisco and the race was early morning, we started at nine, and so it was probably like 75 degrees or something like that, and she was dying. She's like this is too hot for me, it's only 70 degrees. It feels quite comfortable. She's like no, and she was totally dressed like somebody from San Francisco, where she's like covered in long clothing Cause I think she thought it was going to be cold and it wasn't cold, um.
Speaker 1:
But you know, you may want to consider your climate. If you're not somebody who gets along with the heat or the cold or whatever, you may not want to do it. I mean, there's things that you can't change on race day. Right, it may be raining, you know, or snowing, or foggy, or whatever those are, you know, day of event nightmares, especially for the race director. But in terms of where you're racing, you will. You should have a general idea of what's going on with the climate, right, the temperature range, whether or not there's going on with the climate, right the the temperature range, um, whether or not there's going to be other issues. Like you know, it could be something as simple as, like, um, elevation, and some people aren't used to having some elevation, and if you're racing up in the mountains, then you need to go sooner so that you prepare for that kind of um tax on your body, for sure.
Speaker 1:
And then also, you know you want to look at like what? Why is this event around? Like, what is the idea of it? Is it, does it align with who I am as an athlete, you know, in terms of what is it going to bring out of me in terms of my performance, right? Is it a motivating event? Is it just something that I'm doing because my training schedule is getting boring and I want to have an idea of where I am in my training for whatever event may be happening.
Speaker 1:
So there's a lot of times that people choose things for, you know, filler events like oh I just want to see where I am, or what's my 5k time, or whatever it may be. I always put this down because one of my motivating factors for choosing the event is food right, like, if I'm giving you a certain amount of money and obviously race fees are not something that are cheap what am I looking at in terms of what am I getting at the end? And, of course and again this is a little bit of bash on Ironman, I remember when they took over a race that was run by a different person and all of a sudden, our barbecue chicken and special hamburgers and all that stuff went away and we got Little Caesar's Pizza and I was like I'm giving you $350, $375 for me to race for Little Caesar's Pizza. That's kind of a bummer. But look at it.
Speaker 1:
What are some events? We have some events where there was food trucks. There have been events where even the snack food at the rest stops was amazing, and so sometimes that's a nice thing to do. I remember we had one race event where someone said that they probably gained weight because it stopped at all the local farms and you would get whatever they had out there. And they said, yeah, I've never like it was a bike ride. But you know, it's like I've never done a bike ride where I've actually gained weight by the end of it because of all the good food. But that was a fun thing and it was a way for people to get to know the county. Again, that's kind of neat. To get to know the county Again, that's kind of neat.
Speaker 1:
So you choose your event based on your distance, terrain, what you're willing to do, and now you have to decide like what is my schedule? What is my schedule going to look like? So what does that mean? That means, like, I'm looking at my work schedule and I know I'm going to have three days a week or four days a week that I'm going to be able to train. So how do I fit that in? Well, you know, during the week, I'm going to have three days a week or four days a week that I'm going to be able to train. So how do I fit that in? Well, you know, during the week I'm going to do short runs or whatever that kind of thing, and then on the weekend is going to be my long training days, or vice versa, whatever works for you. Now you have this out. So what are you going to do? Well, if it's an event that I know that is a very long event, I'm going to need at least 18 to 21 weeks to train for that event. So that doesn't mean that I drop in five races in the middle of it or whatever. Maybe this is my, you know, my golden event, my, the gold thing that I want to train for.
Speaker 1:
So you have to make sure that your schedule fits your life schedule, and you know there are plenty of people who will talk about your racing. Widows, right, the the people and I should widows, widowers, um, that kind of get left behind when training starts. Um, because the schedule is continuous and you know there are issues that are beyond my control or my knowledge of what people have going on. But the other thing you know, the thing I know about, is that you want to make sure that your training schedule is easy and meaning like, or maybe I should say, simple, because you want to put yourself where you're trying to schedule it so that you have enough rest, you're avoiding burnout or overtraining, injuries or any of those things. You also, unfortunately, if you're female, you want to try to hopefully time it so it's around your cycle, so at least you're not miserable while you're out there. But those are things that you need to consider. You want to keep it away from possible family holidays or family birthdays that you know that you need to be present for.
Speaker 1:
So it's good to have a schedule, because by doing that, then it allows you to look at those events and be mindful of it, because you want to be an athlete, but you also want to make sure that you're participating in your life and that being an athlete isn't only your life, because balance is everything. So ideas for choosing events is, like you know, make sure that you choose the one that suits your abilities and goals right. Make sure that you are considering the distance, the location right, because we didn't even talk about the fact that if you choose to go to a destination race, that all the logistics that go with it and you don't want to be an Ironman athlete who has your bike in bike jail, uh, for months after the event or, you know, possibly interfering with your participation in the event, um, and then you have to choose, like, what are your different levels of events that you want to do? That will challenge you and that will also kind of make you feel good about who you are as an athlete. So it's always best to just sit down and create a race schedule, say, I want to do this right, because you also have to consider finances. I want to do this, what is this going to look like? So you know, this race is a lot of money, so I want to make sure I'm at my best for that race because I don't want to, you know, piss away my money. Excuse my language, although I already used asshole. So I think we're okay but anyway right.
Speaker 1:
So you want to make sure you do those things and you want to make sure that you have some recovery time, you know, in between the races, because you know you don't want to train for a marathon and then have like three weeks later doing another race because you're probably not going to be recovered from it. And again, distance determines recovery. The longer the distance, the more taxing it is on body and organs and muscles and bones and you know you get blisters, you get funny stuff and whatever. Your brain says a different thing because you've been training so long for an event and you get obsessed with training and then the fall off of, of course happens after the event and that's where a lot of people come into that post-race depression. And so you know, if you know that you're prone to that, you may have events very planned out so that you don't fall into that category.
Speaker 1:
The other thing is kind of making sure you have structure set in place to take care of that, like, oh, I'm going to go on a family vacation after this or something. So that way your mind isn't like I'm sitting at home and recovering and I feel like shit and I should be training even though your body says no, right. This is where you give that opportunity to kind of look at those things and see what matters. You know, all in all, you have to decide on your own balance right, that work-life balance and what you need to do, and you also need to, you know, decide the atmosphere in which you want to race, because that's important. So I haven't mentioned it before and I don't know it's going to this year is going to be our 10th anniversary of the triathlon that I host, and it is an amazing event, and I don't know how many people put together an event with athletes in mind, as opposed to putting on an event and then hoping the athletes come.
Speaker 1:
This event came out of the droughts of California. You know, 10 years ago things were pretty dry. We weren't as bad as eventually we ended up, but you know it was looking like one of our races that was in the late fall was not going to happen, and so a group of us were super disappointed and then we were like, hey, we could put on our own event, and so then we created this event and it was, um, it was super cool Cause we were just kind of crazy people. And so we decided we were. We went to the local pool and you know we had. We decided we went to the local pool and you know we had elected a person to stay outside to watch our bikes. And so we, you know, go in during lap swim of the pool because I didn't want to rent anything or, you know, because we couldn't afford it, because it was only I don't even know how many of us, it was probably 10, 12 of us and so we swam our laps, we got out, we got on our bikes, we did whatever. And then we ran our distance and we came back and we barbecued and had beer and burgers and you know all that kind of good stuff, and it was a really good time. And the idea was that we weren't really timing ourselves. We didn't have medals. We did make ourselves shirts and I ordered shirts for it and it was just super cool. And so then I thought, oh, we should do this every year. And then friends were like, yeah, we should do this, and so we kind of created the thing. So the next year I think we had like 30 people that showed up because we had friends that came and did it and you know, like friends did it together and it was really fun, and so that's kind of where it got birthed out of.
Speaker 1:
As time went on, I started hearing from my athletes different things that were going on with them. So you know the people that were running slower than I guess people would like they were having these situations where they're running on the course and they're shutting down the course while you're still out there and they're removing all the crowd controls, they're taking the cones, they're doing whatever. So these people are literally running and not knowing where to go because everything's gone, because the race director has decided that they're done and there's still people out on the course, and so I thought that was horrible, and so that was one of the things where, like no, we're not doing that, we're not leaving people out on the course and making them feel less than for being slow or running at their you know rate, whatever that may be. Um, you know we don't time, because we don't want a situation where people feel the pressure of that or, you know, wanting to know their time. Like you know again, I use this term a lot or this example of like I'm running down a five-year-old so that you can get your medal ahead of them. You know, I didn't want it to be like that. I wanted it to be family friendly. I wanted families to come out and compete with each other.
Speaker 1:
I wanted to have a pool swim because of the fact that I know, as an athlete, training a lot of times, being in the water and not being able to see is a little bit scary, and so the idea that in a pool, I can open my eyes with goggles on and look down and see a black line, or I can be in a lane where it's short and I can stand up and walk, was a lot more comforting to me than it was to be in the middle of a river that was kind of murky and something touched my leg and holy shit, I don't know what that is. You freak and I'm sure people who have worked with me all know the freak out because we've all freaked out. I am not a. I am not immune to the I don't know what that was and, holy shit, I'm going to swim faster because I'm freaking out, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:
Pool swimming is fun. It's interesting, right, because you circle, swim right, which means everybody stays to their right, and a lot of times that could be good or that could be bad, depending on you know, I've done events where there's been like 15 of us in a lane and it's really congested and eventually you start swimming slowly on purpose so that all the quick people will get out and then you have all the room to swim. We haven't had that situation because we have 10 lanes on our pool, so I've made sure that it's been balanced out pretty much and so we haven't had too much of a cluster, shall we say. But the feedback that I've gotten from the event is that it's a good event and that people are happy and they are able to dip into the world of triathlon without feeling badly about themselves. They're able to shock themselves about their participation, like I didn't think I could do it and there I am. Um, they're able to feel a sense of accomplishment and that's what I hope for. Right, that is.
Speaker 1:
That's the goal is that I want to help people be able to accomplish something, and whether I'm coaching you and you're one of my athletes and you have your race set up for the season, or whether you are doing this for the first time or the 10th time or whatever it may be, you know, my goal is that I want to be there to encourage you. I want to be there to support you. Um, and that's how I feel like the event should be. It shouldn't be a oh, I don't want to deal with you or I'm too busy, right, like, how many race directors do you see that are out there and I like to be seen. I like to, you know, hear feedback from people. I want to know that if something sucked too, I mean, you know, everything hasn't been all like. You know roses and you know rainbows. I mean, there's been times that we've made some errors, and but we take that feedback and we use it to make sure that we have a good event in the end, and we use people's comments to make adjustments, and I think that we have made the adjustments accordingly and that's something that's pretty cool and that's what makes me proud of the event. And so, hey, if you're in Sonoma County and I believe we're having our event this year September 29th, so the last Sunday in September and you want to race a pool triathlon, come and have some fun. Like I said, it's a good event.
Speaker 1:
Now, where I'm lacking in this event, because it happened so quickly, is in the food arena and I got to get it dialed in in and I'm sure it'll happen eventually. You know, we we had a really good volunteer that would bring in, like, cut up fruit and do all that kind of stuff, and it was super cool, um, and then I kind of gave up on it because of COVID got weird and you know whatever, but I want to have something. Um, I just have to, you know, watch the permitting of all that kind of stuff, but I'd like to like be able to give people food so that they can go. Oh yeah, you know my fees went toward paying for it, because I'm definitely not charging the fees that other people are charging. You know, I'm definitely not getting rich on the event, but I just love the event and I, like I said, the feedback that I've received from so many athletes is that they really enjoy the event and they see from so many athletes is that they really enjoy the event and they wish there was more of them that were like this.
Speaker 1:
And atmosphere is everything right, especially if you're a beginner. You want to be in an event that supports you and doesn't make you feel bad about who you are as an athlete is what I'm trying to say. So anyway, going back to the main purpose of this whole chat was you should have you should have your race schedule like at least a rough draft already made out of what you're doing this year, um, and you should make sure that you are putting enough time in between the events to allow your body to properly heal and recover from the previous event or the training. You should also make sure that you don't over stack so that you're not in a situation where you're getting any injuries as a result of overuse and whatever. And then, of course, I'm going to put in a pump for cross training. Right, you should always be lifting weights, doing other things, right, especially triathletes.
Speaker 1:
A lot of times, because there's so many, because we're doing three things already, we're like that's enough, it's like no, it's not enough. You need to lift, you need to do your yoga, you need to do the things that are going to help you be as athletically balanced as possible so that when you're done with the race, you're as good as that you started. You're probably just a little tired and fuel deprived, but it shouldn't be a situation where you're destroyed, right, nobody should finish an event destroyed, because if you did, then shit went sideways and you probably need to get a coach and make sure that that doesn't happen again. So you know, again, like happy race season, right? You know I'm getting excited. I can't wait to hear what everybody's doing and and what they're going to go out and accomplish. But so, anyway, that's all I got for now. Thank you so much for listening and don't forget to like and review and all that good stuff, and I will catch you next time.