No idea what you SHOULD be doing, just don't take Fishbum's advice....

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=6917151#p6917151

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hahahahaha...when I saw you commented I thought for sure you'd have said "squats". hahaha

This year just for the sake of it, I didn't do anything at all but resting for a week before HIM and it didn't work that great for me.
I felt like HIM was tougher this year and I got some serious cramps on the run. Next time, I will run a couple of miles, get on a stationary bike and do some light workout everyday as usual.

This is off topic, but from what I've read and researched that is a normal feeling, and sometimes you get that feeling even after a taper. The "thought" on it is that you'll lose some fitness by not going as hard, BUT being fresh will allow you to go harder FOR the race then you would have been able to if you were still in training mode. So you may "feel" worse, your performance is usually better because of that rest. But again...that could all be bullshit. lol

Why not look at what some of the canned HIM training plans online for some reference? Also, how long of a taper you need is going to be totally dependent on how deep of a training/fatigue hole you're in. As a rule of thumb though, do SOMETHING on race week; same training frequency as a normal training week. Include some strides while running and some form sprints while riding. For swimming I like a couple of 100s as 25 easy 25 med, 25 easy, 25 hard. Nothing long or hard, but things that keep some of the fast twitch muscles going.

Tapering is something that is highly specific to each athlete, so getting it right takes a bit of experimentation for each person. In college, we were told a reduction in volume of 60-90% 5-21 days in advance of the event. The key with that was to keep the intensity of the work outs, just reducing the volume. For instance, if you typically had been doing at 1.5 hour week day ride, with 2x20 min hard, than in taper week (or weeks) that would look like a 36 min ride, with 1x 16 min hard. That all being said, if i reduced training volume by 90% 3 weeks out, i would race like crap.

Now... with that said, it is totally dependent on a tun of factors, and this is probably why you have not seen a "taper plan for 70.3)

The first thing to consider is what your weeks before the taper period looked like. For your half ironman, how many hours a week have you been averaging in the months leading up to it? If someone is "only" putting in 6 hours a week (which I have seen for 70.3) am I going to than reduce their volume by 60%? Probably not. and Definitely not for 21 days. However, I have athletes who are doing 20 or more hours a week on average, than yeah, Ill be reducing their hours pretty significantly, while keeping intensity. Often adding intensity. The goal would be to get them to the start line fresh and recovered, and by keeping the intensity, their fitness will stay sharp, and wont go down by too much, because we have kept the systems engaged.

Now, ill give you what my taper looks like for my final 70.3 of the season, and remember, this is all based on what you have been doing ahead of the season.

3 weeks out - Overload week, 19.75 hours, with some serious intensity.
2 weeks out - 13.5 hours, short bursts of intensity, high and hard.
1 week out (race week) - 5.5 hours, recovery work outs, with some short sprints, and race pace efforts. But short.

So for your, what do your weeks look like leading up to the event?

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12-14 hours a week for me, 2 run days are spring intervals for 1 hour, and 2 bike days are also sprint intervals. I'd say I go pretty deep in the well on those sprint days.

Anyways, I think my taper plan doesn't suck, but with a small change to reduce intensity on that final week just a hair.

Doing nothing is not an option.

I usually do a 7-day taper, where the race is the 7th day. I decrease weekly volume by close to 50% but increase the intensity. This has seemed to work well for me. For example, most days will be easy recovery for all 3 disciplines. One day I'll do 4-5 x 800 at what my mile repeats speed usually is. In the water, I might do a race pace interval of 400-500 to open a swim or 8-10 100's fast and then go easy the rest of the swim, and for the bike, maybe a few 5-10 min race-pace intervals. All these will be done within Mon-Thurs of race week. It seems to me that you want your body to recover in the taper week, but you don't want it to relax/think it's off the hook. That's where the higher intensity stuff helps. Easier to recover from but your body is still getting quality work.

I'm racing on Saturday, Marbella 70.3. I have kept the volume up until yesterday, doing my last 100k ride on the bike. Last track session was the evening before. Today I did a double swim and tomorrow I will do a 3k run, a 30min bike and some swim sprints in the evening. I did a 4.28 70.3 in September (34-2.21-1.28) for reference of fitness. I don't think you should go down on volume more than at most 6-7 days out for a half. Seems ridiculous to lower the volume 3 weeks out for an event that takes a few hours.

I'm in ST.G 70.3, so i'm 10 days out. Lowering volume would start now. I'm thinking it would be better for me to lower it marginally earlier (at 10 days) instead of waiting and hoping 7 days is enough. Might "lose" some, but I did go pretty hard and deep the past month plus, and the extra recovery (remember, i'm only going down 80% volume for this week) would be beneficial. OH yeah, I won't be lowering my swim volume any because it already isn't great (2 swims a week @ 2100m per), just on the legs on the bike and run.

For 70.3 CT in 5+ weeks I’m only doing a very short 3-4 day taper. I have IM Norway a month later, and I am pretty much treating the 70.3 race like another day of training. I’m in the 14-16 hrs/week range, but will have a few weeks in the 17-19 range leading into both races.

Typically I’ve found I do best in a 70.3 with around an 8-9 day taper. Still keep volume high through mid week of the week before race week and still get in a 2.5 hour ride a week out from the race with around a ten mile longish run the weekend before. I also like to try to keep the swim volume as high as I can because I’m a pretty bad swimmer. For me that means three swims a week based on family and work, including race week.

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Thanks for the replies all...I think my plan is a "decent enough" one.