Former modern pentathlon Olympian professor Greg Whyte is a pre-eminent authority on exercise physiology and sports and exercise performance in the UK. But he’s probably best known for training, motivating and successfully coaching 23 Sport& Comic Relief challenges.
Race experience leads to enhanced performance, or at least it should. And much of that experience, itself, comes from taking part in regular racing events.
Each year our technical performance (for example, feeding and pre-race strategies and equipment) and tactical performance (positioning at the start of the swim, pacing and transition times) should improve with every race as we progress throughout the season. But we often overlook one key aspect and forget to reflect on our achievements and progression.
Reflecting on race performance in the period shortly after the big event is important as it captures the aspects of the race that went well and those that we can set aside to require improvement. Granted, it can all be too easy to only reflect on those aspects of race strategy that went wrong. And yes, there is much to be gained from correcting failures in strategy (remember failure is only failure when we fail to learn), but it’s equally as important to reflect on those aspects of your strategy that went well.
When it comes to performance, the greatest gain comes from correcting the weaknesses while developing the strengths. To that end, you should make sure you spend as much time on identifying the strengths as you do the weaknesses of any performance.
