You have trained for weeks, months, or years and it’s finally time to put all the effort to good use. It’s race day!

You have mapped it all out, you see yourself finally crossing the finish line, achieving a personal best, or even making it onto the podium.

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out as you expected. Maybe you made some of the most common racing mistakes without even knowing it.

Let’s have a look at some of them throughout the week.

Each training session has a set of pacing zones that serve a purpose but every now and then athletes go off script in an effort to gain some additional benefits and it ends up costing them more than it helps.

In the final blog post series on common training mistakes, we will explore some of the pacing mistakes almost every athlete has made at some point.

“It never gets easier; you just go faster” is one of the few absolutes when it comes to endurance sports. However, many athletes hit a plateau fairly quickly and it can be puzzling why they don’t see improvements anymore.

Lack of variety in training is something you should check out first.

Let’s have a close look at why always going at the same speed won’t help you get better.

Endurance athletes are all about their training. Speed workouts, intervals, hill reps, and long sessions are all they think about. They, mostly, put very little emphasis into what foods and drinks they put into their body.

This can have a big impact on their performance as well as their overall day.

Today, we will explore some common mistakes athletes make when it comes to hydration and nutrition.

Endurance athletes (e.g. runners, cyclists, triathletes…) often focus on sport-specific training and tend to overlook the importance of strength training even though they stand a great chance of injury during their career. Adding strength training into your routines can play a crucial role in enhancing performance and preventing injury.

Let’s have a look at some common strength training mistakes, endurance athletes make.

There is, in reality, no such thing as overtraining. You can train for as long as you want and as often as you want under one condition. You have to rest properly.

You only get better, faster, and stronger if you take the time for your body to heal and absorb the training volume you put on it.

Today we want to look a little deeper into overtraining or under-resting and find out what we can do to not fall for the most common trap in sports training.

One of the most complex but also rewarding aspects of running a sports club is event planning and execution. It can be anything from a local tournament to a large scale competition. What they all have in common is that it requires meticulous planning, coordination and problem solving.

In the final part of our series we will have a look at some of the key challenges you can face when it comes to planning an event.

Running a sports club without members is pointless. That’s why membership growth and retention is among the most critical tasks you will have to occupy yourself. Attracting new members while keeping existing ones engaged requires strategic planning and continuous effort. Here are some of the key challenges faced by sports clubs in this area.

When managing a sports club, you can’t only care about the sport aspect of it. You need to be able to engage with your target audience (and potential members) and, especially in the early stages, rely on people volunteering to do certain tasks because they think your club is worth it.

How to get to a point where you can attract more people and entice them to give you a hand is the topic of today’s blog post.

As we have written before, a sports club can play a vital role in a community.

However, when it comes to managing the financial aspect of running a sports club, things can get tricky. Club owners are, usually, sports enthusiasts and don’t have the knowledge on how to approach this. This in turn can put a lot of pressure on them and the survival of a club becomes a month to month affair.

Today, we will dive a little deeper into the financial aspects of running a club and share some tips on how to make your life easier.

There are many reasons for running a sports club but the one that, usually, stands on top of most lists is - love for the sport.

A person has been active in a particular sport and wants to share their experience and passion with other people.

They get a few people to sign up, organize training sessions and start practicing in a gym or park. What now? Running a club is more than just a few training sessions per week. It’s a lot of work that can be boring, complicated and downright frustrating.

This week’s series of blog posts will tackle some of the biggest challenges a sports club owner faces.

Sometimes, a new person wants to join your club and to your surprise they have a friend (or two) who is tagging along. These are the social butterflies in your club. They are usually more interested in the social aspect of your club than the physical aspect.

Let’s dive one more time into the last type of members we will analyze for this series.

If you check out a practice session for just 5 minutes without knowing anything about the team, you will be able to spot the athletes with competitive spirits. They are the ones who see everything as a competition and being second is nothing short of a loss to them.

Let’s dig a little deeper into one of the most challenging athlete types if we look at it from a coaches point of view.

Team players play a vital role in pushing the club forward and keep its momentum. They are the backbone of every sports club because the thrive on collaboration and share their knowledge with everyone. But it’s not always roses and sunshine with them either.

Let’s dive a little deeper into what makes a team player.

One of the most common sports club member types are the enthusiasts. Their general characteristic is that they truly love the sport and enjoy participating in it. However, being overzealous can come at a cost.

Let’s explore this type of athlete in more detail today.

Every club is different. The people in the club can be even more diverse. Sometimes it can be a challenge to organize practice sessions and make sure that everyone is working as hard as they should (or can).

It’s not always just about the physical capabilities of an individual that will determine how a coach has to approach training with them.

Psychology plays a big role as well. That’s why we will dive into some of the most common types of members you will encounter throughout your training career and discuss some of the most common ways how to get the most out of those athletes.

You have trained, taperd, visited a physio and loaded your muscles with glycogen. You are ready to race!

However, there are a few pitfalls when it comes to your perfect race that can hinder you in achieving your best result. Read along and discover some of the tips you should follow in order to enjoy your race and be proud of your result.

As athletes are getting ready for the challenges of racing, whether it’s a sprint or a marathon, one aspect of their preparation can make a significant difference - nutrition. Proper nutrition is one of the main ingredients for any successful training regimen and can greatly impact performance on race day.

Let’s have a look at all the things that can help you out when it comes to nutrition.

In today’s fast-paced world, taking care of our physical health is crucial. This is especially important for people who regularly train and race. Since most people aren’t full time athletes and have to work a job to support themselves, it’s critical to use the down time to recover as much as possible.

As your race day is only days away instead of weeks or months, the anticipation and excitement can be a two edged sword.

On one hand you are excited and can’t wait for the gun to go off, while on the other hand you are tempted to do just one more workout to truly be ready for the race.

But amidst the final preparations, there’s one strategy that can make a significant difference in your performance - tapering. Tapering refers to a planned reduction of training volume before a competition. It’s a critical phase that allows your body to recover from all the passed stresses of training you put your body through and prepare for the demands of the race.