Having a race plan which is customised to your skill and preferences is a thing of beauty. You know it WORKS for you and you can continually refine it.
Coach Sam Dutney leads the Erg Intensive training and has given this outline on how to build your plan.
Race goal
For erg racing, Sam recommends aiming for an even split for each quarter of the race. This is because the relationship between watts (power) and split is not linear. It takes more energy to bring your split down one second per 500 the lower your splits. Therefore to keep your energy expenditure as constant as possible, even splits is the best strategy.
The purpose of a race plan is to set markers through the race, to help you plan strategies for each part of the race and to give you focus points to achieve this.
Breaking your race plan into “chunks” helps – it’s easier to focus on a short term horizon. At a minimum four quarters is an easy breakdown. In a 1k race this is each 250 meters is one quarter. You need to have a goal for each quarter. If you prefer, you can do 8 or 10 chunks for smaller increments.
Race plan quarters
1st quarter – get yourself onto your target split as quickly as possible AFTER the first 10 strokes. Use these ten strokes to work your anaerobic reserves of energy – but they get depleted fast and so after 10 strokes, get onto your target. Focus on length and good body sequencing.
2nd quarter – Consolidate is your focus. The first challenge point in your race comes around 110 – 140 seconds after the start. This is where your energy system switches from anaerobic lactic to aerobic. It will hurt. But after you are past this point, nothing will hurt more than this in the rest of the race. You need to know how many strokes you take to cover 100 meters. Then this allows you to chunk into 100 meter sections. You may take 12 or 15 strokes to do 100 meters. Ensure your focus points DO get you through 100 meters each time so you can cover the distance.
3rd quarter – This is the ‘gold medal’ quarter. As you come into the third quarter at half way in the race you can make an assessment. How am I doing and can I sustain this pace? If you want, you can accelerate slightly to go faster – as long as you know you can continue at this new faster pace. In this quarter use most of your technical focus points. It may help to distract you from the pain with a focus on technique rather than a focus on effort / intensity.
4th quarter – If you are feeling good, can you accelerate as you come into this last part of the race? Maybe drop the split one point. Do this as a gradual step up in intensity, not a sudden shift. Don’t start to sprint until 300 meters to go.
Judgement calls
When deciding how much faster you want to go, here are some guidelines.
Changing your 500 meter split by 1 second (e.g. from 02:00 to 01:59) at 500 meters remaining in the race will make your tie 1 second faster at the finish. If you do the same change at 1000 meters remaining, you will drop your finish time by 2-3 seconds. And if you are in the last 200 meters of the race and you drop the split by 5 seconds you will still only take 1 second off your finishing time.
Technique focus points
Practice one technical focus at a time. Do these in your tempo pieces during training. This will teach you how to do a range of focuses and you can use the to make improvements during your race. Think of these as being a “bag of tricks” and you need to choose the right trick for each situation.
Sam recommends your technique focus points work around the stroke cycle circle. So you need one for the catch/front end (e.g. engage the lats at the catch); follow this with one for the mid-drive (body swing hard), one for the finish (pull the handle up) and one on the recovery (keep your legs straight as you rock over). The benefit of this is that each technical point naturally leads to the next one in the stroke cycle.
Practice races
When doing practice races, set your target split on the conservative side. The reason for this is that at the end you will know if you have more energy to give in future. But if you fail to hold the split in your practice trial race, you will find it hard to diagnose why you failed to hold your target split.
Remember, racing is 90% mental.
