Structuring Your Season: The Science of A, B, and C Races
1. The Hero’s Calendar
Every January, I see the same spreadsheet. It lands in my inbox attached to a polite email from a new athlete, usually an ambitious age-grouper with a high-stress job. It is colour-coded. It features an "A" race in late summer. But leading up to that, there is a clutter of local 10ks, a sportive, three sprint triathlons, two Olympic distance races, and a "B" priority 70.3 that they intend to "use as a training day". The logic seems sound on the surface. You enjoy racing. Racing forces you to work hard. Therefore, the more you race, the fitter you will get. It is the "more is better" fallacy that plagues endurance sports.
Here is the problem. You are viewing these events as opportunities to test your fitness or gain mental toughness. That is fine. But your biology views them as trauma. While some coaches view races as tests, the physiological reality is that every competitive effort serves as a potent stimulus with a distinct biological cost. While you are negotiating with yourself that you will "take it easy" at that B race, your physiology has no such gear. The moment the gun goes off, the psychological governor that protects you during training is disabled. You dig a hole.
And if you dig that hole too often, or too close to your primary goal, you do not build fitness. You bury it. This is not about motivation. I do not care how "hungry" you are. This is about the rigid laws of human physiology. Every competitive effort has a distinct biological cost. If you do not pay that debt with recovery, your body will collect it via injury, illness, or a performance plateau that no amount of interval work can fix.
We need to move away from "calendar Tetris" and towards Strategic Triage. We need to organise that trauma into a periodised strategy that respects both your physiology and your work schedule.
2. The Physiological Foundation: The Cost of Going to the Well
To understand why you cannot simply swap a Sunday long ride for a 70.3 race, we need to look under the hood. Most athletes—and frankly, many coaches—underestimate the physiological delta between a hard training session and a race. They look at Training Stress Score (TSS). They see that a hard 4-hour brick session might generate 250 TSS, and a 70.3 race might generate 300 to 400 TSS. They think, "It’s only a small jump. I can handle it".
This is a dangerous oversimplification. TSS is a metric of cardiovascular load. It tells us very little about the structural damage, hormonal disruption, and neurological fatigue that occurs when you race. Relying on TSS alone to judge recovery is a primary reason athletes stagnate.
For a deeper understanding of why data often misleads us, read: Maximising Triathlon Performance: The Pitfalls of Data Dependency
2.1 The Intensity Distribution Paradox
In training, even during your hardest interval sets, you have micro-recoveries. You push hard for eight minutes, you spin easy for two. These gaps allow for partial clearance of metabolic byproducts like hydrogen ions. Your autonomic nervous system gets a brief respite.
In a race, there is no respite. You are locked into a continuous, uninhibited metabolic expenditure. You are not clearing acidosis; you are bathing in it.
This creates a massive glycogen deficit and accumulates metabolic waste products at a rate that training rarely mimics. You are forcing your body to recruit larger, less efficient motor units just to maintain velocity as your primary fibres fatigue.
This is why the "feel" of race fatigue is different. It is not the sharp pain of a VO2 max interval. It is the dull, systemic heaviness that sets in during the last 5km of a run leg. It feels like your engine is revving, but the transmission is slipping. That is your body desperately trying to find a new energy pathway because you have exhausted the efficient ones.
2.2 The Eccentric Destruction (Structural Cost)
The cardiovascular system recovers relatively quickly. Your muscles do not. This is the primary reason why triathlon recovery is so much more complex than cycling recovery. Running is an eccentric load. Every time you land, your muscles lengthen under tension to absorb impact. This causes micro-tears in the sarcomeres, specifically what we call "Z-line streaming". It is actual trauma to the tissue. A "B" race that involves a hard run effort—even a 10km—induces levels of muscle damage and inflammation that cycling simply cannot replicate. You cannot "train" a muscle that is effectively necrotic.
This distinction is vital for triathletes. Read more here: Triathlon vs Regular Running: Key Differences Explained
2.3 Central Nervous System (CNS) Fatigue
This is the most overlooked component of racing. Fatigue is not just in your legs; it is in your brain. During a race, your Central Nervous System (CNS) is working overtime to drive neural signals to fatigued muscles.
Eventually, the CNS protects itself by reducing the "neural drive" to the working muscles. This is Central Fatigue. While metabolic waste clears in hours, Central Fatigue can persist for 3 to 5 days after shorter events, and weeks after an Ironman. Your muscles might be fuelled and repaired, but the signal from the brain is weak.
2.4 The Hormonal Crash
Finally, we have the endocrine cost. Racing triggers a stress response that mimics severe physical trauma. Cortisol spikes to mobilize energy, which is catabolic: it breaks down tissue. Simultaneously, anabolic hormones like testosterone often decrease or show a blunted response for days following the event. If you race a "B" event hard, you are effectively putting yourself in a catabolic state for the following week.
2.5 The Cumulative Stress Load
Your body does not distinguish between sources of stress. It does not have a separate bucket for "threshold intervals" and another bucket for "financial anxiety". It all pours into the same reservoir of autonomic stress. When you race, you fill that reservoir to the brim. If you are a Pro, you can empty it quickly through massive rest. But as an age-grouper, your reservoir is already half-full with life stress. When you add the trauma of a race, you overflow.
Understanding cumulative stress is key to longevity in the sport. See: The Cost of a Frictionless Life: Losing Joy and Meaning in Life and Training
3. The Framework Defined: Strategic Triage
To manage this biological cost, we must organise the trauma through Strategic Triage. We categorise every event on your calendar not by how much you want to do it, but by the physiological cost we are willing to pay for it. We use the "A, B, C" framework.
The "A" Race: The Anchor
Definition: The reason you are training. You get one, maybe two of these a year.
The Strategy: Full Peaking.
The Cost: High. You will sacrifice 1 to 2 weeks of training before (taper) and 2–4 weeks after (recovery).
For an "A" race, we are looking for a performance gain of 0.5% to 6%. This requires a disciplined shedding of all fatigue, even if it means feeling "flat" in the days prior.
Selection Criteria:
Does this race inspire you enough to endure whatever it takes to get ready for it?
Is the logistics profile (travel, time zone, climate) manageable?
Are you willing to sacrifice 6 weeks of total training time (taper + recovery) for this single day?
The "B" Race: The Simulation
Definition: A test event used to validate fitness, test nutrition, or qualify.
The Strategy: Partial Taper (Operational Readiness).
The Cost: Moderate. You lose 3–4 days before and 3–5 days after.
We do not aim for 100% freshness here. We aim for "Operational Readiness". We want you to feel good, but we are not willing to shed the Chronic Training Load (CTL) we have spent months building. It mimics the back half of an Ironman; if you can execute race logistics while slightly tired, you are building resilience.
Selection Criteria:
Does the course profile mimic your A-Race?
Can you execute this without massive travel stress?
Are you mentally prepared to race on "tired legs"?
The "C" Race: The Workout
Definition: A low-stakes event (local 10k, sprint tri) used to break monotony.
The Strategy: Train Through.
The Cost: Minimal. 24–48 hours of adjustment.
This is the most dangerous category for the Type-A athlete. You must discipline yourself to treat this as a workout. If you taper for a C race, you are wasting valuable training time.
Selection Criteria:
Is it local (sleep in your own bed)?
Does it replace a specific session (e.g., a Tempo run)?
Can you cross the finish line without digging?
This structure is fundamental to our methodology. Read: Sense Endurance’s Approach to Triathlon Periodisation
4. The Timeline & Execution Protocols
Identifying the race priority is step one. Step two is executing the specific taper and recovery protocols associated with that priority. This is where most self-coached athletes fail. They taper too much for C races and recover too little from B races.
The Opportunity Cost
Every race you add has a tax.
The Taper Tax: You shed fatigue but lose training stimulus.
The Race Tax: The day itself is a massive load but lacks specificity.
The Recovery Tax: You lose 3 to 7 days of quality training post-race.
If you have three "B" races in your build phase, you have lost six weeks of training. You become race fit, but aerobically fragile.
Protocol 1: The "A" Race Taper (The Full Sharpener)
To achieve peak performance, we follow the science strictly:
Volume: We reduce training volume by 40% to 60% over the final 14 days.
Pattern: The reduction must be exponential. A fast drop initially, levelling off.
Intensity: This is crucial. You must maintain intensity. If you drop the intensity, your blood plasma volume drops, and you feel "stale".
Protocol 2: The "B" Race Taper (Shed Fatigue, Keep Load)
We want to remove the "edge" of fatigue without detraining.
Timeline: Train normally until 4 days out.
Days 1–3 Pre-Race: Drop volume by 50%. Keep frequency the same. Do not take extra rest days; this ruins your "feel" for the sport.
The Outcome: You will stand on the start line carrying a slight "fatigue residue". This is intentional.
Protocol 3: The "C" Race (The Train-Through)
The race is the workout.
Monday–Friday: Normal training week. Do not skip your Thursday threshold session.
Saturday (Day Before): Very light activation (20 min jog).
Sunday (Race Day): The race replaces your long run or brick session.
Scaling: The Pro vs. The Parent
We must apply a reality filter.
The Novice (8–10 hrs/week): You have a smaller aerobic base. A "C" race sprint triathlon will wreck you more than it wrecks a pro because your body is less efficient at clearing metabolic waste.
Adjustment: Treat all races as "B" races initially. You do not have the volume to "train through" events safely. Take the 3-day recovery.
The High-Performer (15+ hrs/week): You have the durability to absorb a "C" race , but your engine is big enough to hurt yourself. You can generate enough power in a Sprint triathlon to tear muscle fibres if you aren't careful.
Adjustment: You must use "C" races to practice constraint. If you get sucked into a race-day ego battle, you have failed the workout.
5. Mental Periodisation & The Aftermath
Structuring your season isn't just about managing muscle necrosis; it's about managing your mind. You cannot be mentally "race ready" for 12 months of the year.
The Dopamine Crash (Post-Race Blues)
You finish your "A" race. You achieved your goal. Three days later, you feel depressed, irritable, and aimless. This is not a weakness; it is neurochemistry. You have spent months flooding your brain with dopamine and endorphins. Now, the tap is turned off. You are in withdrawal.
Anticipate this: The ebbs and flows of athlete development
The "Open Window"
You do a "B" race, and three days later you have a cold. The "Open Window" of immune suppression lasts 3–14 days after a long event. This is caused by a decrease in salivary Immunoglobulin A (IgA).
The Fix: During this window, avoid crowded, germ-heavy environments. Prioritise sleep and hygiene.
Read more: Training Through and After Illness: A Triathlete’s Guide to Recovery
The False Dawn (Day 2 Trap)
You race on Sunday. On Tuesday (Day 2), you feel surprisingly good. You decide to jump into the squad interval session. This is a trap. Inflammatory markers often peak 24–48 hours post-race, but the secondary wave of immune suppression and neural fatigue can hit days 3–5. Ignore how you feel on Tuesday. Stick to the prescribed active recovery.
6. The Next Step: Turn Strategy into Action
The "Sense Endurance Coaching" approach is not sexy. It does not promise you can race every weekend and set PRs every time. It promises something harder: Discipline. It requires the discipline to hold back during a "B" race. It requires the discipline to taper when you want to train. It requires the discipline to rest when you feel like you should be working. But this is how you build a season that lasts. By respecting the biological cost of racing—the CNS fatigue, the muscle necrosis, the hormonal crashes—you stop digging holes and start building mountains.
The goal is not to be the fittest person on the start line of a local sprint in March. The goal is to be the fittest, healthiest, and most resilient version of yourself when the gun goes off for your "A" race in August. You now have the framework. The choice is yours: continue playing "calendar Tetris," or start building a performance architecture that actually works.
Ready to stop guessing? Here is how I can help:
1. Get Expert Eyes on Your Season
If you want a programme that respects both your physiology and your work schedule, apply for 1-1 Coaching. I will build the A, B, and C strategy for you, monitor your recovery markers, and adjust the plan when life (or biology) gets in the way. Apply for 1-1 Coaching with Tom
2. Structure Without the Fuss
Prefer to train solo but need a plan that understands the difference between a "B" race and a training day? Browse my Periodised Training Plans. These are plans built on the Sense Endurance Coaching principles of strength, specificity, and recovery. Browse Periodised Training Plans
