You’ve trained for months. Your long rides, bricks, and interval sessions are in the bank. You’ve watched your heart rate zones, hit your nutrition goals, and maybe even visualised the finish line. But when it comes to endurance events like triathlon or long-distance cycling, race day execution is everything.
It doesn’t matter how fit you are — if your plan falls apart on the day, so will your performance.
Here’s how to make sure that doesn’t happen. These are the five essentials every athlete should have nailed before toeing the line.
1. Pacing: Trust Your Plan, Not the Adrenaline
Race day brings excitement, nerves… and a huge temptation to go out too fast. It’s the most common mistake I see athletes make, especially early in the race when everything feels easy.
The key is to pace intelligently:
- Swim: Use RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion). Don’t blow your race in the first 10 minutes by chasing feet you shouldn’t be on. Swim steady and smooth.
- Bike: This is where races are often won or lost — not by pushing hard, but by being disciplined. Use power, heart rate, or RPE, ideally a combination of two. Power gives you objective feedback, heart rate shows how your body is coping, and RPE adds the subjective feel. Don’t rely solely on how good you think you feel.
- Run: Again, combine tools — pace, heart rate, and RPE. Be cautious off the bike. Let your body settle before ramping up. And remember: on hot days or hilly courses, pace may be misleading. Trust effort over numbers when needed.
Great pacing feels conservative early and strong at the end. That’s the goal.
2. Nutrition: Know Your 3 Key Numbers
Nutrition is where many athletes struggle — not from lack of knowledge, but from lack of a plan. Fortunately, Precision Fuel & Hydration have made it simple. You just need to know three key numbers:
- How much sodium you lose per hour
- How many grams of carbs you need per hour
- How much fluid you should drink per hour
These vary person to person and can change depending on the weather, your body size, and intensity. But a good starting point for many endurance athletes is:
- 60–90g of carbs/hour
- 500–1000ml fluid/hour
- 500–1500mg sodium/hour
Once you know your numbers, ask the next question:
How will I carry and consume all of this?
Bottles? Gels? Chews? Drink mix? Aid stations? Special needs bags? For long events, this becomes a logistics game — one you need to rehearse.
Test your plan in training. Stick to what works. And have a contingency if something gets dropped or your gut rebels.
Check out these 2 podcasts about race day nutrition & hydration:
- Race day hydration & Nutrition: lessons from 200 case studies
- Athlete case studies to discuss race day nutrition
3. Mindset: Control Your Thoughts Before They Control You
Endurance events are as much about the mind as the body. You will have dark moments. You will be tested. And if you haven’t prepared for that, it can unravel everything.
Here’s how to build your mental plan:
- Early race: Stay calm. Don’t get swept up by others.
- Middle: Focus on form, fuelling, and rhythm.
- Late: Break it into chunks. Use mantras. Tune into your “why.”
And what about setbacks? Missed nutrition, a flat tyre, nausea, cramp? These are all normal. Have a plan for how you’ll respond. Remind yourself: this is just one moment. You are more resilient than you think.
Check out these podcasts on race day mindset
Jim Vance on Race Day Mindset
Developing an IronMind
4. Equipment: Nothing New on Race Day
This is the simplest area to control — and yet it’s still a source of stress for many.
Start with a list. Here are a few essentials:
For triathlon:
- Wetsuit, goggles (+spares), trisuit
- Bike, helmet, shoes, spare tubes
- Running shoes, socks, hat
- Race number belt, sunscreen, nutrition
For long cycle events:
- Well-maintained bike
- Multi-tools, CO2 or pump, inner tubes
- Nutrition setup
- Weather-appropriate clothing
Pack the day before. Charge your devices. Check your gear twice. There’s nothing worse than being halfway to the start line and realising your shoes are still by the front door.
5. Timetable: Plan the Week, Not Just the Day
A well-planned race week can make all the difference. It reduces stress, avoids last-minute panics, and helps you stay calm and focused.
Things to include:
- Travel and registration times
- Race briefing and transition opening hours
- Meal times, hydration strategy
- Gear check and bag drop deadlines
- Bedtime the night before
Race morning is its own beast. You want every detail mapped out — breakfast time, arrival, toilet stops, warm-up, final kit check. No decision-making on the day. Just follow the plan.
Also: know your cut-off times. In Ironman, for example, the swim, bike, and run all have strict limits. Being aware of them can influence your pacing and your mindset.
Final Thoughts: Don’t Leave Race Day to Chance
There’s a saying: A goal without a plan is just a wish.
On race day, the opposite is also true: A plan without execution is just paper.
Get these five elements right — pacing, nutrition, mindset, equipment, and timetable — and you’ll give yourself the best chance of performing at your best.
Need help pulling together your race strategy? Want to be part of a community that takes this stuff seriously — but doesn’t take themselves too seriously?
Join my SWAT Inner Circle. We help athletes over 50 become battle ready — all year round. Click here to learn more.
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Simon
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Please check out these podcasts and articles
PODCAST: Live athlete case studies discussing race day nutrition & hydration strategies
Check out this podcast where we discussed the race day refueling strategies of 3 SWAT athletes who were aiming for different distance triathlons. We cover individual options for getting the right amount of salt, carbs and fluid before and during their events.
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ARTICLE: Race day nutrition: 3 things you must get right
When it comes to race day performance, the difference between a breakthrough and a blow-up often comes down to your nutrition and hydration strategy. In a recent podcast, I spoke with Andy Blow and sports scientist Emily Arrell from Precision Fuel & Hydration, who shared insights from over 200 case studies of endurance athletes. Whether you’re elite or age-group, the lessons are clear: get your carbohydrate, sodium, and fluid dialled in, and you’ll dramatically boost your chances of success.
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