- We're in Samorin at the Challenge Championship,
the day before the race
and we're gonna go and ask the pros
what their training looks like the day before a race.
What they eat the night before
and if they have any superstitions or any rituals.
What's your pre-race dinner?
Do you have a certain meal
that you always have before a race?
- Ah, yeah, it's usually pizza or pasta.
High carbs, not too much,
and yeah, that usually fuels for enough.
- And what do you have?
What's your favorite pasta dish or pizza?
What would your choice be?
- Typically, I keep it quite plain,
like spaghetti bolognese or just Margherita.
Yeah, just a Margherita pizza
or spaghetti bolognese.
- What's your pre-race meal?
What do you have in the evening?
- Pre-race meal, so that will be tonight.
I will go for probably chicken and rice
if I can get ahold of it.
Yeah, again, I'm pretty flexible.
As long as, pizza, I love pizza before,
as long as it's got some good carbs in,
then yeah, I'll eat it.
- So, my go to is something like spaghetti carbonara
or just pizza.
I normally pile on loads of carbs.
Yeah, just carbing up, simple, sort of beige food,
nothing exciting.
- Usually try and go for rice and chicken.
They're pretty easy to find all over the world.
It sits in the stomach well,
easily digestible carbohydrate,
a bit of protein.
That's my go to, yeah.
- What would you have the night before a rice, food wise?
- Something simple, you know?
You don't want any red meat,
you don't want too many rich vegetables.
You just want some pasta, some chicken,
and tomato soup.
- Nice and easy.
- Traditionally, I have my family's secret recipe pasta.
But we don't have cooking space here.
- Can you give us any like idea, what might be in that?
- You'd have to ask my wife.
She's the one who makes it usually.
Tonight, we'll have, there's like an Asian restaurant here.
We'll have some sort of noodle dish.
But mainly just noodles.
- Not too much spice for the Asian dish.
- No, no spice whatsoever.
Just plain noodles.
- I, probably like most triathletes, something pretty simple
rice and chicken or rice and salmon.
I try and stay away from too much fiber,
so I do normally love fruit and vegetables,
but I don't have much of that the night before.
- Once you've had your supper,
what's your sort of evening routine?
Do you have any superstitions or anything you need to check?
Anything you need to do specifically
the night before the race?
- I usually just kind of go through the three sports
and check I've got everything.
I do my cap and my googles
and I kind of play it out
and make sure I've got everything.
Yeah, usually settle down, watch a movie
and read a book to help me fall asleep.
You're waking up so early,
you're trying to go to bed at 8:30,
but your body isn't used to going to bed at 8:30,
so you gotta try and relax.
But yeah, usually the night before
it's a little bit jittery and nervous.
So, you just try and do what you can
to mentally shut off and yeah.
- I have a mental image of you
doing fancy dress through all of your outfits
and like practicing your swim in your wetsuit in your room
and sort of jumping on your imaginary bike.
Is that what it's like?
- Yeah, yeah, well I don't actually put them on,
I pretend I'm putting my cap on and my goggles,
and I pretend I'm riding,
taking a drink and things.
But yeah, that's pretty much how it goes
and people that see me do it always laugh at me.
But it helps me remember,
so yeah, that's the main thing.
- Yeah, I normally listen to a few of my favorite songs
and maybe watch something on Netflix
and yeah, just put my legs up.
I like to elevate my legs for some reason.
- What sort of music do you listen to the night before?
- So, something, I try to do something
a little bit more relaxed.
So yeah, I have a morning playlist
and then my evening one will be really chilled out.
Something like Enigma.
- I like to have everything laid out and ready to go
for the next morning
and typically I paint my fingernails and my toenails
before I go racing and yeah.
- What color, let me guess. - Guess.
- Are they always pink?
- Yeah. - Different shades of pink?
- Always pink with the fourth one gold.
- Oh, are they done yet?
- Not yet. - Not yet.
Okay, we won't look closely.
- I always drink Corona
the night before a race, yeah. - Really?
- Just, you know, makes me relaxed
and it's just like become a ritual
that I do before my races.
- Shave my legs if I haven't done it before.
Most often, I do it the night before racing.
- I mean, I try and stick to just sort of
what I normally do at home.
Watch television, probably eat a little bit of chocolate.
I don't know, maybe if I'm in a place
where I've been a little bit bored for a while,
I'll go online shopping.
But I'm trying not to shop this year.
So, won't do that this time.
- Yeah, I usually do a double check over all my equipment.
If anything pops into my brain,
I'll just double check it, that kind of thing.
On my Kindle, I have some little excerpts from
sports psychology books and stuff like that
I like help me focus on the important things about the race
that I might review
and just trying to get sleepy.
So, usually turn the lights low and just relax.
- Normally I just sort of go over all my kit,
go through a little checklist,
make sure I've packed everything.
Don't want to forget like my running trainers
or something silly like that
and then normally pretty boring, just an early night
and get ready for the race.
- Do you have any like rituals, are you superstitious,
or anything you do the night before?
- No, if anything, I really try and do everything
two nights before that needs to get done
and so that the night before,
I can just sit and listen to some calming music,
start to get myself in the zone,
go into battle zone,
and yeah, I hate to have any stress.
So, the races where I have things to do are bad.
So, yeah, tonight I've gotten everything done
already pretty much.
So, I'll just be chilling out
and listening to some relaxing music.
- What training do you do?
What's your day look like the day before a race?
- Yeah, so before the race,
it's a little bit more like two days before.
So, two days before for me
is the relaxing day and day before,
I do a little bit longer ride, like 1.5 hour
and do some one minute intervals,
just get legs a little bit pumped up for the race
and then just easy swim, easy run
and little bit like gym exercises.
Just tune up the muscles for the event.
- That sounds a busy day.
- Yeah, it's quite busy day,
but that's how it works for me
because I like to be a little bit tired
but coming fresh, little bit tired,
and then on the event, I feel perfect.
- What's your training like on the day before a race?
What do you do?
So, the day before the race,
I do hopefully a little bit of everything.
Sometimes I don't run, depends on the race and the course.
But it will be more short kind of fire up stuff,
activation work and then just relax.
- And what are your three,
when you do all three sports,
what's the session?
What do you do in each one?
- So the run could be something really easy,
like a shake out jog.
The bike, if I've done pick ups the day before, I won't.
We kind of keep a variety in it.
There will definitely be pick ups in one of them.
Swim pick ups, maybe something like eight 50s,
like 25 a bit hard.
Yeah, nothing max, nothing kind of staggering.
- The day before a race,
what training do you tend to do?
- So, today, I did a short little turbo.
I actually have brought my turbo
which is really cool. - Oh really?
- It's that little compact one.
Set that up from the decking area.
So, I was doing 30 minute turbo out there
with just some sharpening up stuff.
It was hotter than Kona on that turbo,
on the turbo on the deck in there,
so I was like maybe I'll come here to train.
So, yeah, that was pretty good.
Just a 35 minute sharpening up
and then a little swim just to loosen up
and yeah, I'm good to go, just resting now.
- You don't run on the day before a race?
- No, so I ran yesterday
and then I'll leave my run legs.
Hopefully they'll be ready for Sunday.
- Yeah, the final day, I usually have a swim and a bike.
I might do them in that order.
I'm not too picky about it.
It sort of depending on what other commitments you have
and how you have to check the bike in and whatever.
I think being flexible allows you to be not too stressed
about how the day goes.
So, just a little swim and a little bike
and make sure the equipment is rolling.
I do my last one, like I did it today, and yeah.
- And I mean, our viewers are probably really interested
to know you say a little swim and a little bike.
Can you give us anymore detail
without giving too much away,
but what you actually do,
what your swim session and bike session might look like?
- Yeah, the bike is like 30 to 60 minutes.
So, sometimes it's just you go as long as you need
to start feeling good,
pick up a little effort.
I sort of get to a point where I'm like ya, I'm good.
So, I have that range of time.
And the swim, yeah, it's like two to three K.
Again, just some pick ups,
some stuff that you do on a routine you know,
like okay, I feel good.
But also not trying to put too much judgment on it,
because if you start going like,
oh I felt like this, therefore the race is gonna go,
you go, you get the work done,
and then just focus on the next day.
- Yeah, I mean I still swim quite a bit.
Well, not so much today,
but this whole week, I'm at 23 kilometers as of Saturday.
Today was just race simulation set.
100, I take out speed to 200, cruise,
three rounds of it.
Every time, putting my head into the gun going.
And then just a 20 minute bike.
Put all my race stuff on,
take it for a little cruise
just to be sure everything's working properly
and then a five K run.
A couple little pick ups just to get that groove in.
Otherwise, pretty chill training day.
- It's really very similar to every race I do.
I do sort of 40 to 60 minute spin,
a short swim, maybe a kilometer,
with a few like pick ups in there,
and sort of 20 minute jog in the afternoon.
So, it really doesn't change.
- Pretty simple, try to get in a light swim
and usually on the bike.
It's the one day of the week
that I have always taken off running.
I don't worry about getting out for a run
the day before a race.
Just a quick easy bike and a quick easy swim.
Loosen up, a few little hard efforts in there
just to keep things moving,
but nothing crazy.
- And do you spread them out
or do you do them in a particular order?
- Again, it really depends on the day.
I mean sometimes you have bike check in at a certain time,
so maybe do one in the morning
and one after bike check in.
Yeah, it really varies by event.
If I can get them done in the morning, that's great,
and just have the rest of the day
to take care of what needs to be done.
- Yeah, I just do 30 minutes of each discipline.
Pretty much just a lot of resting,
little bit of training,
just to feel good and spark the body up for the next day.
And do you do them in a continuous order
or do you separate those three training sessions?
- It depends how late I get up.
If I sleep in, I'll probably get everything out
at the same time.
If I'm up early, I'll swim first
and then run later in the day.
- Just a easy spin on the bike,
maybe a little splash.
It also depends what I feel like, you know?
It's really important for me as well
to just listen to the body.
Do I want to train or do I don't want to train?
- The day before a race it's not training,
it's more like preparation.
I did a morning run with some short sprints
and now just in the pool a little bit.
You have to feel the water and get in touch with the water
and also to do some very small efforts.
In total, it was one K.
- That's my sort of session.
- Don't call it training,
it's very good to keep the body moving.
And this afternoon, I will go to the bike,
do a final bike test
and also leg test.
And yeah, that's also a mental thing,
when you know you are doing always the same
and you hit your numbers
and then you'll be good for the competition.
- Well, there we no surprises that a lot of pasta and rice
gets consumed the night before the race.
But a few other interesting insights
into how to pros actually prepare
and if you want to get all of our videos from GTN,
hit the globe to subscribe
and if you want our video that we made
on tips on how to prepare for your next race,
that's just here.
And if you want to see a comparison between
wetsuit swimming and non-wetsuit swimming,
you can catch that here.