A strong feeling during the race often leads to mistakes. Why correct pacing and ironclad nutritional discipline decide between success and a crash.
The moment when everything runs perfectly in a race is the greatest feeling of happiness for triathletes. Your legs feel light, the pace is high, and the competition is kept at a distance. Yet it is precisely in this phase that one of the greatest dangers of endurance sports lurks: overconfidence regarding nutrition. As reports of dramatic race developments show, a single missed aid station can ruin the entire race just before the finish line. If you want to finish successfully, you must not only train hard, but also control your race strategy and nutrition with discipline.
How important a consistent nutrition plan is, is shown by the example of 20-year-old Estonian Liis Kapten at the Ironman 70.3 in Tallinn, which was reported on by Triathlete magazine. Kapten was leading by over six minutes during her middle-distance debut. Because she felt brilliant on the run course, she decided to skip her planned nutrition. A fatal mistake: around three kilometres before the finish, she completely ran out of energy. In the final 200 metres, she lost control of her body, stumbled into barriers, and fell several times before saving herself across the finish line in third place.
The lesson from this is clear: if you feel extremely strong during the race, this is not a sign that you can do without nutrition. Rather, it is proof that your nutrition strategy so far has worked perfectly. Once the body is completely empty, it is too late to make up the deficit. If you want to avoid health risks, you should always consider a professional medical assessment in case of such states of exhaustion.
In addition to nutrition, correct pacing on the bike decides the further course of the race. At the Ironman 70.3 in Zell am See-Kaprun, pros Laura Philipp and Lasse Nygaard Priester showed how a controlled race looks, according to reports from Triathlete and tri-mag.de. Both managed their energy perfectly on the demanding, hilly course, built up pressure on the climbs, and made optimal use of the descents to take the victory in the end.
But even the best preparation does not protect against mishaps in the transition zone. In Zell am See, top athletes like Cameron Wurf lost valuable time due to equipment defects, and Trevor Foley due to an unfortunate choice of shoes in the transition zone. For recreational athletes, this means: every detail of the equipment and every movement during transition must be extensively trained in advance to avoid hecticness and mistakes during the race.
For your own training and the next race, clear guidelines can be derived from the experiences of the pros and amateurs:
Your takeaway: Stick strictly to your nutrition plan during the race, even if you feel great – if you forget your nutrition, you will crash later.
This article was generated automatically with AI from the sources listed above and has not been editorially reviewed.