Race Day, In Her Words: Katrine Græsbøll Christensen's Preparation Routine
Zone3 athlete Katrine Græsbøll Christensen on her race-day routine: kit tested the day before, packed by discipline, and a calm start line.
Date:
July 30, 2026
Time:
6 min
Katrine Græsbøll Christensen has raced 13 long-distance triathlons, including a win at Challenge Sir Bani Yas and at IRONMAN Sweden.
She has been on 5 podiums in 6 races in the 2026 season.
Before she became a triathlete, she raced as a sprint kayaker for the Danish national team, and she works as a civil engineer alongside racing.
Ask her what race week actually looks like, and the answer isn't a mindset trick. The answer is a race day routine - a sequence, repeated and refined until it needs no thought at all.
What could you learn from her experience?
The day before: testing the suit, reading the light
Christensen's final open water session before race day isn't about fitness. The value is information.
"The day before a triathlon race, I typically have a short swim workout practising a couple of 'swim starts' at the actual start location, to get the 'open water feeling' and understand the conditions, in my wetsuit.
Also, the day before, I try to obtain an understanding of the light, to help choose the right goggles. Normally, the sun is low in the morning where the long distance races typically start around 7am, so, I would often tend to choose goggles with darker lenses.
But specific races may require different lenses, for example if the water / sky is more cloudy."
Two decisions get made in that short swim: how to enter the water under race effort, and what the light will actually look like at start time.
A 7am start into low sun is a different visual problem to an overcast one, and Christensen treats the lens choice as a decision to make on the evidence, not a habit to repeat regardless of conditions.
Key Takeaway: test your wetsuit and your goggle lens in a swim the day before, in conditions close to race morning, so you can adapt the lens choice. If it's sunny and bright, wear polarised lenses, if it's overcast wear tinted or clear lenses.
Packing by discipline, and timing what matters
Race week for Christensen isn't a single kit pile. Kit is organised by what each discipline needs.
"Before race day, I prepare my kit for all the disciplines so I know I have everything I need. For the swim, I pack everything in the same bag - goggles, swim cap and a PF30 energy gel is separated into a smaller plastic bag to make it easier to find on race day. The PF30 gel, I normally take approx 15 min before the race start."
Nothing here is left to the last minute, everything is packed in a logical way and is easily found under pressure in a race. Even the gel is not just packed, it's timed, decided in advance rather than worked out in the queue for the swim start.
Key Takeaway: pack kit by discipline, and separate race-day nutrition into its own small bag with the timing already decided, so nothing needs to be found or worked out under pressure.
Protecting the days before, not just the morning
Race week for a long-distance professional rarely looks quiet from the outside. Katrine's races have taken her to the UAE, Sweden and Poland in the space of a season, each with interviews, travel and unfamiliar surroundings attached.
"A few days before, I do what I can to minimise stress and keep a good sleep pattern (even though it can be stressful with interviews, race preparation, new surroundings etc.). The day before, I do my best to have everything already setup, as early as possible, so I have some time to zone out and rest mentally and physically. The experience with now 13 long distance races, helps me a lot to relax and enjoy the process."
Many amateur and newbie triathletes will also travel far for races. Travel time, race check-in, and new surroundings can make for a busy lead-up to the event.
What stands out in Katrine's routine that we can all learn from, is the order of operations: protect sleep first, get logistics done early, allowing for time to be genuinely quiet and restful. That last part, the zoning out, only has room to happen because everything else was finished ahead of it.
Key Takeaway: protect sleep through race week and get kit and logistics including registration and transition preparation finished early, so the day before the race can be genuinely restful rather than another day of preparation. You don't want to be racing tired!
Race day routine written down and repeated
By the time race morning arrives, there's nothing left to decide.
"On race day, my race routines are written down and have been practiced and refined during previous races. Therefore, everything is set and ready in the morning, and I know exactly what to do and in which order."
Thirteen races and counting - each time Katrine races, she prepares the same sequence so it becomes second nature. She doesn't treat that as a finished product either, each race is a chance to refine it further, to make race morning smoother.
Takeaway: write your race-morning routine before each race and then review it after the race is finished, so you can refine it before the next one, that way fewer decisions are left for the morning itself.
On the start line
Every piece of that race day routine is aimed at reducing stress, so you can focus on your performance across swim, bike and run.
"When I am on the start line, I feel in some way very peaceful and in control, just excited for what the day brings."
Peaceful and excited aren't usually paired together, but that's the specific state a rehearsed routine produces. Not the absence of nerves, but nerves with nothing left to attach to.
Practicing with the exact kit, practicing laying out your transition, practicing your swim start - it is all done so there are no surprises or worries when you start racing.
Takeaway: calm on the start line comes from a rehearsed routine, not from eliminating nerves. Build the routine first, and the composure follows.
What Katrine's routine offers to anyone racing Triathlon for the first time
Christensen's routine is the product of experience most first-time triathletes don't yet have.
But the structure underneath it doesn't require thirteen races to start building.
Test the suit and the goggles in conditions close to race day. Pack by discipline, and decide nutrition timing in advance rather than on the morning. Protect sleep in the days before, and get kit sorted early enough to genuinely rest the day before. Write the sequence down after the race, and refine it before the next one.
FAQ
What is Katrine Græsbøll Christensen's race-day routine?
Christensen follows a written, practised sequence refined over 13 long-distance races: a short open water swim the day before to check the wetsuit and read the light, kit packed by discipline with race nutrition timed in advance, protected sleep through race week, and a fixed order of steps on race morning itself.
How does Katrine Græsbøll Christensen choose her goggle lens for race day?
She checks the light in a swim the day before the race, since long-distance events often start around 7am into low morning sun. A low sun typically calls for a darker lens, while a cloudier sky or water calls for something lighter, a decision she makes on the specific conditions rather than habit.
Why does Christensen do a short swim the day before a race rather than resting fully?
The swim isn't for fitness. It confirms the wetsuit still feels right under race effort and shows what the light will actually look like at the start to decide goggle lens choice, information that can't be gathered any other way once race morning arrives.
How does an experienced long-distance triathlete manage race-week stress?
Christensen protects her sleep pattern through race week despite the disruption of travel, interviews and new surroundings, and prioritises getting kit and logistics finished early so the day before the race can be genuinely restful rather than another day of preparation.
