Hitting the high notes when it counts

The hardest thing any athlete can do is peak for the right time. From Olympic stars who must getit right one week in four years to the local athletes who wants to smoke their mates at a smaller event the trick is still how do you achieve that maximum performance and keep it going for when you need it. Time and time again we see awesome athletes not go the full distance because of the dreaded drop off in form. Campbell Maffett, one of Australia's best age group athletes and running coach offers his take on this.

Triathlon is a summer sport...albeit a summer season that runs from about October to April. Most sports physiologists will probably suggest that trying to race hard during this time will only produce mediocre overall results rather than the dizzying heights you're seeking.

So what's the deal with racing during winter, that is, not summer? How often have you found yourself racing up a storm, in rare fitness and form in August and September, and then flat as a tack in summer...when as a triathlete, the most important races are on. It's frustrating and demoralising...but doesn't need to be like this.

The winter months are long, dark, cold and dreary. While there's certainly a time and place for winter racing since every race event is a great learning experience, in all honesty, they don't and shouldn't count for much. They're great for practice, but in the bigger scheme of things, not worth much more.

The coming season is an especially important one for hundreds (thousands?) of triathletes aiming to qualify for world championship events in Australia in 2009. The time spent planning your race calendar, and training in parallel, means you can feasibly reach a couple of peaks during the season to coincide with some races you really want to do well in. That's a realistic aim and it feels fantastic to race well.

But around those peaks it takes experience to realise - and importantly, to accept - that other races are likely to feel sub-par and perhaps a bit of struggle. This doesn't mean not to do them, but to just roll with the punches of fluctuating form. Because if you hit the high notes when it counts, then what happens in between isn't all that important.

And that's one thing that separates good athletes from the also-rans. Which do you prefer?