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

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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…

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