Racing for eight days straight takes a serious toll on your body and your brain. And at the Tour de Femmes avec Zwift, the riders are contending with extreme heat, tons of media and attention around the race, and of course, the tired minds and legs that happen at every stage race.
Here, Kristen Faulkner of Team BikeExchange-Jayco, and Krista Doebel-Hickok of Team EF Education-TIBCO-SVB share their routines and habits that they use to stay mentally and physically strong during long stage races. Even if you’re not lining up for the start of Le Tour, steal these tips to help you stay strong during your next big race or tough training block.
Know yourself
For some racers, the team dynamic and always being around other racers boosts their performance. Others need a bit more quiet time to recharge between stages. “I always wake up way earlier than the rest of my teammates, so I’m always the first person in the breakfast room,” says Faulkner. “I usually have a coffee while I’m completely on my own. It’s usually only an hour of alone time in the morning, but it’s important. Sometimes I’ll call people back home in the States, sometimes I’ll look at the race course. But it’s really nice because it’s just me in an empty breakfast room and I just have that hour of peace and quiet to myself.”
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Knowing whether you need social time or alone time to help you feel internally energized can go a long way in helping you mentally fill your cup during a long training block. Aim to schedule in more dates with friends or time by yourself at points in your schedule when you need a pick-me-up.
Find calm before a race—then get pumped before the start
Some racers might prefer to sleep as late as possible and then jump out of bed and onto their prerace to-dos. But while sleep is important, feeling calm and not rushed heading into a race is even more important.
“I usually eat breakfast with the team, and try to be done with a bit of extra time before we need to be on the bus,” Faulkner explains. “Then, I go back to my room and I do a little bit of yoga and stretching, and I find that it really calms me down.” Give yourself those extra minutes in the morning so you can start the day on a relaxed foot, rather than a panicked one.
While Faulkner tries to stay calm for most of the morning, as the race gets closer, she and her teammates try to kick into high gear to be motivated for the start. “We have some loud music and dancing that happens on the bus before we actually start the race,” she says.
Contain prerace nerves
Before race day, think through what scares you about the race, and how you can handle it with grace and courage. For Doebel-Hickok, that means taking her common worry—crashes in the race—and then reminding herself that she’s had crashes and injuries before, and has always been able to overcome them. Thinking through this worst-case scenario lets her roll up to the start feeling focused, not stressed about the “what ifs.”
If you commonly deal with prerace nerves, get honest about what exactly you’re worried about—and think about how you’ll handle the situation if it does happen. Scared your start won’t be very good? Mentally prepare to chase back into the peloton… and maybe add some start practices to your training.
Have a routine
“Once we get in the bus, I pin my number on my jersey, I make my stem sticker [with race info on it] and get my ride food organized,” says Faulkner. Having steps that are so routine before a big ride makes it less likely that you’ll forget a critical step.
If you’re new to racing, consider writing out a list of an ideal prerace routine, so that you can start implementing it and checking your list as you go.
Have a midrace eating plan
“I always start with one bottle of water and one bottle of Neversecond C30 [a carbohydrate drink mix], then I take a gel or food item by the clock. I know that I’ll be eating and drinking something every 20 to 30 minutes, or whenever my Director Sportif firmly tells me ‘Krista, take a gel!’ over the radio and I don’t have the energy to talk back,” says Doebel-Hickok.
If you don’t have a Director Sportif chirping in your ear, consider adding reminders that ping to your cycling computer or your phone, or just put a note on your top tube that simply says ‘eat and drink’ so you’re reminded to stay fueled.
And a postrace eating plan
“Immediately after the race ends, I drop by our soigneur—the person who’s in charge of things like bottles and keeping us organized—to snag my bottle of recovery, chug it, and get to the bus for an espresso… and likely a little biscuit,” says Doebel-Hickok.
Stage races or big training blocks require big calories if you’re going to get through feeling strong. Because of that, racers who thrive aren’t sticking to salads with dressing on the side postrace, or eating a single hard-boiled egg with a small scoop of oats for breakfast. They’re loading up, because they know they’ll burn through it on the course.
“I eat yummy stuff. I’ve been known to dump cake and cookies on my morning porridge,” Doebel-Hickok adds. “Of course, I also make sure I’m eating enough healthy food to get the vitamins I need, but the rest of the time, I want to eat what gives me the happiness and energy that I am dependent on to perform at my best!” She notes that after a postrace shake comes snacks, then dinner, then a bedtime snack, all before doing the same thing again the next day.
Take off your kit
“After the stage, it’s into the shower ASAP—hygiene is so important!” says Doebel-Hickok. If you’re in a race or training session where a shower isn’t available right away, at least take off your cycling shorts and change into a clean pair or a breezier set of shorts to let everything dry out and breathe. A body wipe is a great tool if you’re driving to and from the race course and won’t be able to shower on site.
During a stage race, part of the game is preventing saddle sores, and that means getting your nether regions clean and dry as quickly as possible postrace, so bacteria doesn’t have time to stew in those micro-abrasions caused by friction from the saddle. Many races have been lost by riders who had to pull out due to those slightly awkward (and often preventable) injuries.
Roll, stretch, or massage
While pro teams at big races tend to have access to massages—and both Doebel-Hickok and Faulkner are big fans of that as a postrace recovery tool—not everyone has access to an in-house soigneur. Both women spend some time stretching, and Faulkner typically spends some time using a foam roller or tennis ball to work into tight muscles before bed. Whatever you have access to or can fit into your postrace routine, make sure you take the time to relax your tired muscles.
Find a way to wind down
Recovery is always important, but if you have two big workouts or races in a row, you need to make your R&R an even bigger priority. That means the sooner you can calm your brain and body down in the evening, the sooner you’ll start the recovery process, and the sooner you’ll be able to get to sleep at night so you wake up feeling fresher the next morning.
“After the race, I usually wind down to some relaxing music while wearing headphones,” Faulkner says. “I need that alone time for me to just decompress and be in my own head. That’s something that I really need. And if I don’t have it, I feel it in the race the next day. I feel more intense and high strung. So that’s something I make a very concerted effort to give myself every day.”
Get a good night’s sleep
“Stage races are all about sleep-eat-race-eat-repeat,” says Faulkner. Skimping on sleep during a tough block of training or a big race can have disastrous consequences, which is why riders often even travel with their own preferred pillows, plus eye masks, earplugs, and other nighttime necessities for getting to sleep faster. Do whatever you have to do to get quality shut-eye.
