Here I am a week out from my first triathlon this year and I am faced with a week of training that I never sure how to approach. What type of workouts should I be doing on these days up to the event? I realize that endurance-wise there is nothing I am going to do these seven days that will add to my endurance. What type of workouts should I do?
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Re: week before race workouts [waytooslow]
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I'm not an experienced triathlete, but I am an experienced marathoner. Here are the Ten Commandments of tapering that I live by:
Good luck on your triathlon!
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Do not take counsel of your fears.--Andrew Jackson
- You can't help yourself a lot the last 1-3 weeks, but you can hurt yourself.
- When in doubt, do less.
- Maintain consistency. If you've been working out 6 days per week, continue to work out 5-6 days the last week.
- Maintain some intensity. If you've been doing speed work, do a little speed this week.
- Cut way back on volume. Your exercise time should probably be half of what it's been.
- Don't lift weights or do other strength training.
- Eat well. This isn't the time to worry about your weight.
- The day before your race, don't exercise at all or just go out for 30 minutes to help settle your nerves.
- Spend time planning and packing for the big event. Check your checklists twice or more to make sure you have everything all ready. Pack early, 2-3 days in advance. You don't want to waste nervous energy that last few days before the event running around looking for Body Glide and your tri jersey.
- Don't try anything new. No new stretching exercises, no new sox or shoes, no new equipment, no new routine, and no new food or nutrition bars or gels. Use and do only the tried and true.
Good luck on your triathlon!
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Do not take counsel of your fears.--Andrew Jackson
If it is a short race, I train very shortened speed workouts, just enough to see race pace for a few minutes and then go home (warm up and cool down, of course). I'm especially careful on the run though, don't want to strain anything running this week. If I need to burn off some extra energy, or the race isn't one I'm really trying to do great on, I'll do one endurance ride during this week. I'll even do a 10 mile TT full tilt as late as Wednesday before a Saturday race. Something about this short, hard effort on the bike seems to prepare my system for the upcoming race. I always take the day off two days before the race. The day before the race I do every event in race gear...swim enough to warm up, ride enough to break a sweat and make sure my race wheels are fine, and run enough to feel like I'm good and loose.
I usually feel bad this day before the race...sort of sluggish and even a little depressed...I guess it is from cutting back on training time so much during this week. But, it works for me....in fact, the worse I feel on Friday, the better I seem to race on Saturday!
If it's a long race I'm tapering for, I don't do any speed work the week before, and I taper more drastically than I do for a short race. This is opposite of what many people do. I can only guess why I react better this way...I think it is because I am not a natural endurance athlete, so endurance events are more of a strain on me than a power event. I can take several days of intervals and recover more easily than if I do several days of "easy" endurance workouts. You just have to experiment to see how your body reacts the best.
Good luck in your race!
Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)
I usually feel bad this day before the race...sort of sluggish and even a little depressed...I guess it is from cutting back on training time so much during this week. But, it works for me....in fact, the worse I feel on Friday, the better I seem to race on Saturday!
If it's a long race I'm tapering for, I don't do any speed work the week before, and I taper more drastically than I do for a short race. This is opposite of what many people do. I can only guess why I react better this way...I think it is because I am not a natural endurance athlete, so endurance events are more of a strain on me than a power event. I can take several days of intervals and recover more easily than if I do several days of "easy" endurance workouts. You just have to experiment to see how your body reacts the best.
Good luck in your race!
Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)