Stop Trying to Fix Every Bad Race
One bad race doesn't automatically mean something is wrong with the training.
Sometimes it just happens.
Everything is lined up for a good race and the athlete falls flat. If you've been in the sport long enough, you've seen it happen to everyone. Every race isn't going to be a PR, and every race isn't going to feel great.
But how you respond as a coach or an athlete is the real question.
A bad race isn't necessarily a time to change everything, but as a coach, it will probably make you start questioning things.
Were the workouts wrong?
Was the mileage too high?
Was the mileage too low?
Did we taper enough?
Did we need more speed?
Did we need more recovery?
Sometimes the athlete just had a bad race.
A bad race is not a diagnosis of a bad training plan.
Sometimes there is an obvious reason for a poor performance:
Poor pacing
Bad weather
Illness
Poor sleep
Stress
Nerves
Course conditions
Or maybe it was just a bad day
Don't immediately change everything because of one result.
Look for patterns.
Was this just one bad race? No reason to panic.
Three poor performances in a row? Now let's investigate.
It's time to look at training, recovery, mileage, sleep, nutrition, stress, injury, race strategy, motivation, iron status, and many other factors.
Don't Punish the Athlete
A bad race isn't a time to punish an athlete.
"Now we need to work harder!" is not the solution.
We aren't automatically adding harder workouts, more mileage, more intervals, or additional workouts.
In fact, sometimes the answer might be less.
If there is a pattern of poor performances, the coach needs to work a little harder to figure out what's going on. That doesn't necessarily mean the athlete needs to work harder.
Give Them Time to Be Upset
Many athletes will have an emotional response to a poor performance.
They think:
I'm not fit.
The training isn't working.
I'm getting slower.
Everyone else is better than me.
Maybe I'm mentally weak.
What I do with my athletes is tell them they get 20 minutes to sulk—and that's it.
That's my 20-Minute Rule.
After 20 minutes of being upset, it's time to move on. It's time to start thinking about the next one.
That doesn't mean we ignore how they feel.
If an athlete wants to talk about the race, or asks to talk about it, that's the time to have the conversation. But I typically don't try to have that conversation at the finish line while emotions are still high.
Sometimes we wait a few hours.
Sometimes we wait until the next day.
It depends on the athlete.
The goal isn't to tell them they aren't allowed to be disappointed. The goal is to teach them how to respond to disappointment.
Ask Better Questions
When that conversation does happen, there are some simple questions that can help:
Did you pace it correctly?
How did you feel physically?
How did you feel mentally?
What could you do differently next time?
Was there anything outside your control?
These questions can move the conversation away from simply being upset about the result and toward something productive.
Decide What Actually Needs to Change
If training is going well and this was an isolated bad day, don't change anything.
If you've identified a specific problem, make a small adjustment.
For example, if the athlete consistently goes out too fast, work on pacing.
If there is a persistent pattern—maybe an athlete has been struggling for six weeks—then it's time to look deeper at training load, recovery, health, stress, motivation, and everything else that could be contributing.
The key is to make changes based on evidence and patterns, not emotion.
The question shouldn't be:
"How do we erase that bad race?"
It should be:
"What are we going to do differently next time?"
Great coaches don't prevent their athletes from having bad races.
Great coaches teach their athletes how to respond when they do.
Don't panic.
Don't immediately rewrite the training plan.
Don't punish the athlete.
Evaluate what happened. Learn from it. Make the adjustment if one is needed.
And then move on.
There's another race coming.
