In this episode of The Athletes Compass, Paul Laursen, Marjaana Rakai, and Paul Warloski tackle the most overlooked but pivotal phase of race performance—race week. They break down everything from tapering and travel to gear choices, mindset shifts, and even the science of sleep. With personal stories, cautionary tales, and practical strategies, this episode is the ultimate pre-race briefing for any endurance athlete. Learn how to stay sharp, avoid race-day disasters, and show up calm, confident, and ready to roll.

Key Episode Takeaways

• Mindset matters more than muscles during race week.
• Visualization is a powerful tool, but overdoing it can cause tension.
• Pacing is everything—starting too fast can ruin your race.
• No new gear, food, or routines on race day. Ever.
• Sleep the week before matters more than the night before the race.
• Make checklists to reduce stress and avoid forgetting essentials.
• Gratitude reframes pre-race nerves into positive energy.
• Support others on the course—the energy you give is the energy you get.

• Paul Warloski - Endurance, Strength Training, Yoga
• Marjaana Rakai - Tired Mom Runs - Where fitness meets motherhood.

What are your final thoughts, Paul about preparing for your big race?

you know, you're very privileged to actually even have the capacity to be able to do that.

So remember to be grateful for the fact that you have that ability to do what you're doing. And in doing that, you should be welcoming the fact that that's maybe a little bit uncomfortable because it's still a blessing to be able to be uncomfortable out there.

Hello and welcome to the Athletes Compass podcast where we navigate training, fitness and health for everyday athletes. Today we're diving into race week preparation. One of the most critical yet overlooked aspects of race performance. What should you be doing in the final days before a race? Should you completely rest? Should you train? How do you taper properly without feeling flat on race day? And what about nutrition, hydration, sleep and managing nerves?

What's fact about preparing for your A B level race and what's fiction? So we're gonna start with some mental preparation. We had some questions about this in our last ambassador meeting and during our forum. What kind of mental strategies or visualization techniques can help on race day?

Yeah, positive self-talk. Absolutely. Yeah, but let's...

Yeah, but the negative self-talk

is so loud.

It is, it is. Yeah. Like, um, well, and why is that happening to you, right? Like in the taper time, like there's just, there's a lot more time you've got on your hands too, right? And you're like, all of a sudden you're not training as much anymore. So it's like, you start to have these doubts, right? That's cause you got all this time on your hands and it's so, it's very natural to sort of feel that

Did you do enough?

I think part of it is because we're constantly scanning our bodies. do I have any niggles? If you find a little tight spot, then it's like the world is ending. my God, I can't raise. This is something really bad. It's just like, if you like listen to yourself, like on the last two weeks, there are so many different...

Yeah.

That's right.

crazy ideas and you're scanning your body. Am I like getting ready? But then something is hurting. Oh, my hip is hurting. My knee is hurting. Oh, what does this mean? Am I going to get sick? Oh yeah, a little tickle in the throat. Then it's like, oh, damn it. I'm just, I'm just sharing my experience.

hay, MJ, think you're supposed to be helping people, not making them more nervous here. No,

know you're, I mean, I'm sure the listener can relate, right? So it's good. There's the, hopefully there's some, there's some empathy that we're all, you know, sharing right now. Cause we've been there. We've all, we know what you are going through. If you're listening to this podcast and trying to get inspiration, but what's one of the key things MJ that I always tell you when I'm coaching you.

I say to you, MJ, the race now shifts. You've nailed your sessions, right? You've done this all with your muscles, but now the most important muscle shifts to the one between your two ears. That's right.

start with everything to do with the mind,

meditation, staying in the moment, telling myself that I've done everything that I could have done and that any niggles or pains are not going to be there on a race day because of various hormones, you're getting ready. And I think part of it is like your mind is getting ready for doing something really hard.

And part of the race week nerves and the niggles are because you're getting prepared in your mind. But no, when you wake up in a race day, you won't feel anything because this adrenaline's going and all kinds of hormones that are making you feel good and ready for battle.

Yeah. Paul, what do you do for your athletes and for yourself as well in the mental component? As a coach and as an athlete, what's your whole perspective on this?

Yeah, there's usually, yeah.

You know, I think there's three things that we really focus on is one is visualization and especially for the really big races visualizing, you know, for longer gravel races that we do or longer, you know, triathlon kind of things, you know, what can go wrong and then visualize yourself, you know, fixing those so that you're mentally ready for all the challenges. We also do a lot of breath work.

And you know, do box breathing, for example, where you're breathing in for two and or three and then holding and then exhaling for three and then holding that. so you're, you're stimulating your vagus nerve. You're calming yourself down.

follow the plan. And you know, like you've said before the, hay

hay, as in the barn, you're okay. You're going to be okay. You know, you're, you've done the work already and now it's time to go have some fun.

I think one of the key things that we do need to remind ourselves, and this is the part really that, you know, MJ kind of alluded to that's so difficult is that the work, yeah, the barn is in the hay is in the barn and it's, it's like, it's, it's all done and you can't really do too much anymore. Like you've, this is, this is why the, we did all the build phases and, the taper phases is about relieving stress.

more than anything, right? So you've gotta let that go and you've gotta be complacent with allowing freshness to return. that's harder, for many of us, that's easier said than done. But you have to let it happen because you want to be fresh. And that's the whole point of the taper, right? So yeah, and I completely agree with the visualization factor too, right?

You've prepared for this, let's call it an A-race, right? And it's been a long buildup and it's like, it's been kind of your dream. You've done pieces of the work all along the, you know, all along the journey because that's what Athletica does, right? Like the training plan actually prepares you for pieces of the activity that you're going to be doing. So there's studies that actually been shown that, you know, the...

You know, and there's many a story where there's this Olympian. think Silken Laumann was one of these, was a rower actually in Canada, famous rower. And she's one of the most famous Canadian athletes. And the story with Silken, I forget which Olympics it was. It might've been Seoul, but she basically, she was rowing in Victoria at the high performance center there. And she was, you know, she was the shoe in for the win. And she was going to, you know, she did multi.

multi-world champion, but she had a massive accident where a boat rammed her in the side and it tore right through her quadricep. So you can imagine the pointy end of that boat actually tearing the quadricep right off, right? So she has surgery. She's like four months out from the Seoul Olympics, right? you completely, most people would just completely write her off. So for the most part, she started sitting bedridden, right? But what does she do, of course? She said, no way, I'm not.

I'm not done with this. throughout that whole time, she is mentally going through in her mind that race and she's rehearsing it in her mind how she's going to perform, even though she's not performing, but she kept the whole mental rehearsal and like she was training the whole time in place. And she's the epitome of this concept where you want to visualize

what you're about to do. And it's that whole mind over matter thing. And she proved it. she, you know, she, the story is she was still able to, I believe, achieve a bronze medal when, you know, you would think that she would not even be able to kind of come back from that. yeah, it's just the mind is so powerful. So continue to visualize how you're going to perform on that day, what pace you're going to perform on that day, how that feels, the fact that you're not going to overpace.

You know, all these important things that we know are going to lead you to success on that day.

I think visualization is so important, but you can overdo it. So a lot of time I see athletes who are a tad little tense, especially in a long event. Like you can wear yourself out before even the race day by just

not visualization or not calming yourself down, not doing your breathing or not sustaining in the moment and then just stressing out. Just like being so, so, you know, hyped up and, and tight and nervous.

the race day.

Yeah, and it'll probably relate to

the person's personality too, right? Like, however you can kind of get away from it at some point in time is also probably good too, right? Like, so if you're an extrovert, you might want to, you know, have a good chat with your extrovert friends, right? And get your mind off the task at hand. But, you know, for introverts, where you're internalizing many things, you may want more of the meditation route.

Mm-hmm.

What kind of last minute mistakes do athletes make with gear and logistics? How can athletes plan travel and meals and pre-race routines to minimize stress? I MJ, you've flown across the country to do your Ironman worlds, across the world rather, to, you know, what went into that whole process?

First of all, clean bike is a fast bike.

You know, get your, your bike, nice and clean and fast. And, yeah, flying across the world is fun, but it is stressful. So allow a couple of more days than you think to just to have time to figure things out and get a couple of training things done. but yeah, I really enjoy traveling for a race. fun.

the first time you have some nerves like

You don't know exactly what you're doing yet, but I find like the more I've done big races, it gets easier and I can relax a little bit more like, okay, I got that, I got that. But there is eventually some things that you forget when you're not like super sharp and mentally like focused. So depends on your kind of preparation personality, I guess, but writing packing list is a good practice.

there mistakes that either you have made or your athletes have made? You know, what are some typical last minute mistakes? know one is, you know, cyclists changing.

major parts of their gear like putting new wheels on or getting a bike fit or something like the day before. that's like recipe for disaster. You just want to bring it to the shop and making sure it's all working perfectly and then going on from there.

Yeah, for me, it was like doing something brand new on race day. So yeah, these are the things that have been really bad ideas. for example, the latest and greatest new supplement, you're going to give this latest and greatest new supplement a kick on a key race day. And it's not a good idea.

Make sure you've tried every single thing you possibly can in your training, right? Like during your key sets, in the context of, well, in almost every single athletic plan, there will be like a key set. That's sort of a preparatory, phase. It's usually in build, build weeks one through three on the weekends, right? There's almost an opportunity there to trial your race nutrition.

So, and you should do that, right? And again, so nothing is kind of new, but those are my big mistakes is like, and kind of like Paul alluded to, right? Like you're trying a new piece of equipment, right? Like a new disc wheel or whatever, right? And you're just gonna try it for the first time on race day. Those never, you might be lucky, but it's like, you could also be very unlucky too, right? Like these are sorts of things you should be trying in those key sets.

So from nutrition to equipment, everything should be trialed. Actually, I just had a friend who's doing a half marathon. I hasn't done one in a long time, but he's done an athletic, a build. It's going really well, but same sort of thing. So he's purchased one of the new Nike Vaporfly carbon shoes, But in his key set, he trialed it and he's...

He's blown away. He can't believe his stride length, how much it's increased his stride length. But he's already tried the shoes and he's not going to train in them now, but he's done that set and now he's putting those aside and he's ready and prepared for race day with those shoes. Classic example. But he hasn't put those on on day one in the race. So I'll shut up.

Yeah.

That's okay. MJ, what about you?

My first Iron Man, I was super hyped up, visualized, planned everything. Everything that could go wrong, I had a plan what I would do. And then my first Iron Man was in Norway, so it was emotionally very, very important to me. And so first of all, I cry because they play the Norwegian national song. So I'm just like even more.

emotional and like ready to get this day started. So I started way too fast and I got like three, 400 meters in and I'm like, why can't I breathe? I can't breathe. was starting to panic. And then I'm like looking at my watch and I was like, okay, I went out way too fast. So I had to like calm myself, stop and calm myself. And yeah, so I realized.

I realized at that moment that next race I will be in a calm mental state before I get into water. Another mistake, well, I wouldn't say mistake because it went well, but I got a new bike three weeks before Ironman Finland and everybody was saying, can't, you can't ride that. You can't ride that because it's, have, your body hasn't, it's not used to riding that bike, but it felt so good that I went for it anyways.

And it went well, but yeah, I would say probably most people pace themselves wrong. Like they start way too fast, like on a long, long day, like Iron Man. I see it all the time, way too fast. And then they bunk.

Yeah, me too.

And myself personally, that's what I would always do as well. So that was my biggest mistake and biggest learning. And when I finally was able to correct the bike, or the pacing ultimately, the earlier on, then my good times finally came, which was great.

Mm.

you know, it's difficult when, you know, there's, you have this capacity, right? Like you can, you can smack it down, you know, and, you know, you can, you can race a full Ironman and start out at your 70.3 pace, but you know, you'll be, you'll be walking. No, you're going to be walking by the end, unfortunately. That's just, that's just physiology. So.

It's not going to go well.

So what happened? I want to double that that because what happened? What did you tell yourself? Like, what was the turning point?

Well, I it was I was having an ego ego issue ultimately and be you know, because I had some level of ability over the shorter distance. But, you know, probably at that point in time, I didn't really have the knowledge of really how to how to how to train for longer distances. So I would just, yeah, I would race a race Ironmans at Olympic distance or 70.3 pace to begin and

Mm-hmm.

And then I'd be walking later on, But yeah, so I had to grasp some ego issues and get things in check and train more specifically like you can now in Athletica. took a while though.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Nice.

So I think it, remember when we interviewed Matt Fitzgerald, he was saying that there's differences between men and females, how they pace, because men are more risk takers and women are risk averse. And if you look at the ultra distance racing these days, women are closing the gap, right?

Big time,

even winning.

we're

yeah even winning and that's probably or some of the factors could be that we're pacing ourselves better without taking too many risks.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah, no, think, yeah, I think that's, that's super cool. It's a personality type thing. It's a gender thing. Yeah, I love that. And I love that the gap is closing if not even, uh, you know, women, women going better in certain, uh, you know, Deca iron Deca ironmans and these sorts of things. Uh, it's, remarkable and, and super cool to see. We should do a whole podcast on that one day. I've got the, yeah, we get a, get some, some of the.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

ultra ladies that are winning on that.

Yeah, that would be super cool.

All right, let's talk about sleep. Obviously sleep is very critical leading up to the race. What's the best way of making sure that you can get good sleep when you're already nervous and uptight?

Hmm. Yeah, it's a tough one. So to be clear, don't worry about the night before, right? You're probably not going to have the greatest sleep. And I know I've had many Ironman under the belt without hardly any sleep at all, but it doesn't matter. And I think, I think most people realize that, but if you if you're unaware, don't worry too much about the night before, right? Don't don't panic or freak out if you've only gotten a couple hours. It's just very common and

for various reasons, right? Whether you're just anxious and thinking about the race or, you know, it's a short sleep anyways, because you've got to be up at three to get to the start, which often happens too, right? So, yeah, keep that in mind. then, but then prior to that, you should be trying to be in a regular circadian rhythm. We know that that's best, right? So you're aiming sort of for your eight hours, plus or minus an hour a night in sort of the, you know, the

the five to six days kind of prior. That's gonna put you in the best sort of recovery pattern. It can be difficult, of course, if you're traveling the world and you're doing something that just might not happen and that's okay too. yeah, you're gonna do the best you can at the end of the day and you can sleep sort of afterwards. Do your best to sleep when you can, I think would be my advice.

Yeah, whatever you kind of need to do to sort of get through, but most importantly, of try to be calm, get your eyes in daylight, because that is the key factor, remember, that's going to keep that circadian rhythm sort of going.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about lack of sleep. Especially if you're traveling, he, it's just not going to happen. Sometimes you change time zones, like eight time zones. It's not going to happen. You're going to be up at night and then want to sleep during the day. But yeah, I wouldn't worry too much of jet lag. You'll be ready on the race day.

So when you did Nice,

how much sleep did you have in the days prior?

Not much. We traveled Tuesday, there Wednesday morning, did not sleep the first night, maybe a couple of hours. Yeah, there was not much sleep and it was fine. And then after the race, you're so pumped that you don't feel tired at all.

you

Hmm.

Can we bank sleep? if, like if the night couple three, four nights ahead of time, get nine hours of sleep or get more, is that something that's possible?

That's a good question. I I would think you can to some degree, like you can, yeah, you certainly can, you know, refill your, you know, your sleep debt or, and, know, recharge that sleep debt problem. But keep in mind, it's a tough one. Like when you are,

Like you're only going to sleep when you're tired, right? Like you're only going to sleep when you are in sleep debt. And then if you're, so that's the thing is if, you're napping during the day, because you've traveled, you know, eight, eight time zones, then you're really, you're not going to sleep too well, during the, during the night, right? So it's like, it's a fine line between when you decide to sleep, you, you know, I, ideally you want the sleep before.

you go and perform, right? But that requires a lot of time, right? That probably requires you to arrive like 10 days before the event to kind of get in that rhythm. And that just might not be practically possible, right? So a lot of depends on these sorts of things. But it can be done many, many different ways. And many, ways have been successful. So yeah.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Get the sleep if you can, but if you can't, don't sweat it.

All right, training volume and intensity. we be, how should training volume and intensity be adjusted in race week?

Yeah, definitely like volume is reduced. Intensity is maintained. That's the general principle. So you want to, you've done all the work, you've built all the engine and you're just sharpening at that point in time. You're just like kind of keeping things crisp, turning things over. But that's the big thing that the big stress that's kind of removed tends to be the training volume. And be careful, don't overdo it on the intensity.

But it's like, just kind of keep some, a little bit of intensity up there just to remind the body what it needs to do. Keep sharpening. And yeah, and then when it's time to perform, then there's just, yeah, you tend to be able to kind of lift. You've done all the aerobic volume adaptations. They're all in the bank, that haze in the barn, like you say, Paul.

And then, yeah, but the intensity just kind of keeps that upper sympathetic system heightened and you can execute on the day with that. Remember that sympathetic nervous system is really important for driving the heart rate and eliciting the ideal performance.

What are your final thoughts, Paul and Marjaana about preparing for your big race? How do you want to wrap this up today?

Yeah, well, think we've covered it all, but it really all starts with the reduction actually in the training volume, like we spoke about, the maintenance of the training intensity. And now we've got all of this time on our hands. Darn. We now have to control the mind. The most important muscle in the body becomes the one between the two ears. And that's all cool.

Thank

Yeah, and it's like, but it's time to mentally rehearse and unleash all of that training and capacity that we've built over prior months. We need to be mentally rehearsing all of the equipment that we're going to be needing and the intensity that we're going to perform at for the pacing. We know that that's important.

Otherwise, you know, don't forget to have fun with all of this too, right? Like this is a, there's a reason why we do all this, right? And it's all about what's coming, right? Like that. So make sure you enjoy yourself out there. The other thing I tell my athletes also is to be be grateful because they're very special moments that, you know, you're very privileged to actually even have the capacity to be able to do that.

So, and you're going to see all the competitors out on that course and they're going to be looking at you. You're the ones and they're going to be in admiration of you. So remember to be grateful for the fact that you have that ability to do what you're doing. And in doing that, you should be welcoming the fact that that's maybe a little bit uncomfortable because it's still a blessing to be able to be uncomfortable out there. see you got to kind of.

switch that mindset around a little bit. And Marjaana, think you'll relate to some of those comments, because I you've probably heard those before. And you've used them.

Hmm.

I totally used them. This is a hard spot to end this after what you just said, yeah, great being grateful. Like race day is a lot more mental than it's physical. Like you can harness so much power and joy if you just can like channel your nervousness and...

doubt, self-doubt into being in the moment and embracing the pain. And then when it's painful, smile because smiling just makes it feel better. big smiles on a race day. look, like, you know, see somebody else there on the race day. Look at the eyes and smile to them and like pat on the back. You're doing great. Like I have so many moments.

when I've encouraged somebody else and they come back to me after the finish line. I'm my God, thank you so much. Like you, like just because you talked to me, just made it so much easier. And I'm like, I love that. Like I love feeding the energy from the crowds and I also like love giving back because it makes my suffering a little bit less. So yeah, I love racing. It's so much fun.

And I would say for me that, you know, in that last week, your preparation is done. You know, you've done everything that you can do, regardless of whether it was ideal or not ideal, it's done. And you know, that's what you've got. And you know, I love the idea of harnessing the power and joy, Marjaana That was a, that was a great way of putting it. Um, I think the last thing for me is checklists is just, you know, um, even as, mean, I've done hundreds and hundreds of races, um,

Hmm.

And I still make checklists because I still forget things and you know, having a checklist prepares your mind calms your, you know, your, your self down and gets you make sure you have everything when you're, when you're there.

Thank you for exploring the path to peak performance and tapering today with us on the Athletes Compass podcast. When you subscribe to the podcast, you'll ensure you're always tuned in for our next journey into endurance mindset and performance. And when you share this episode with a friend, teammate or coach, you'll be helping them discover new ways to level up their training and life. Take a moment now, subscribe, share, and let's keep navigating this endurance adventure together.

For more information or to schedule a consultation with Paul, Marjaana or me, check the links in the show notes. For Marjaana Rakai and Dr. Paul Laursen I'm Paul Warloski and this has been the Athletes Compass podcast. Thank you for listening.