I’m 10 days from a half-IM and not feeling strong at all. In fact, I’m at my weakest in months. I’m not sure why, as I’d been slowly ramping up hours to a peak last week, and then dropped it down a lot this week. Instead of feeling anxious to go harder/farther, I’m just tired and listless. I followed the Friel/Bryne advice of cutting off sessions if not feeling good. Maybe my last week was too difficult.
I’m wondering whether it’s smarter to just cruise lightly for a few more days, or to keep with the traditional taper plan that’s essentially rest+short bouts of intensity.
Overtrained? What you described certainly sounds like it - especially the motivation part? If it were me I would lean towards the easier taper… Then you should really be jonesing mentally to rev up the engine come raceday.
If your that weak you’re probably either over trained or coming down with something… I believe a normal tapper should leave you feeling a little down and out, especially for the first few days. (At least it does for me.) I normally don’t even feel like working out, but I’ve never had to bag a workout because I wasn’t feeling strong enough. Don’t kill yourself over it. At this point the work has been done. Take it easy, even though you may think it’s too easy… You’re not going to gain much in the term of fitness in the next 10 days… Just take it easy and recover.
I’ve done a few tri tapers recently and lots of swimming tapers back in my youth. I’ve experienced what you describe many times. Personally, I always feel worse before I start feeling better. If you have been training hard for a long time, it takes much more than a few days to rest up.
I find it works better for me if I continue to stay active during this phase, even if I feel tired. Don’t skip a workout unless you feel really bad but you can lower the intensity. I tend to tighten up when I start resting so it helps to keep moving, even if at a very low intensity. A 1 hour bike ride at a heart rate of 110 is more “restful” than laying on the coach at this point.
I also find it helps to go to bed 2 hours early a couple days in a row. Go to bed a few times before it gets dark and you’ll be a new man.
The same thing happened to me a few weeks ago, as I was revving up for Columbia. Couldn’t get through workouts, had no motivation, everything else in my life was really stressing me out… I basically took it easy for about 3 weeks beforehand. I decided that was the only way I was going to make it through the race. I really cut back on my volume and trashed the original plan for a taper. The only goal I had for my workouts was not to lose fitness. I spent more time in the pool than anything, because it’s much gentler on the body. No, it wasn’t the ideal taper. But I felt just fine on race day (except for allergies) and accomplished the goals I had set for the race. I also had a lot of fun. I sure learned a lesson about putting in more recovery weeks during regular training though.
Stick to your taper…I’ve had similar experiences. The most important part now is your nutrition. Be very vigilant with your nutrition between now and race day…that’s where your strength is will come from at this point.
Makes sense. I’m pretty sure I just did too much over the last couple weeks. Good thing it’s taper time, because I sure couldn’t have done my normal training. I’m a few days into it now, and not really bouncing back yet. I have to bank on the lighter schedule allowing recovery in the next few days…
Like others said, stick to the taper plan, you’ll only know the answer on race day.
Remember that the adaptation cycles take their time, depending on the input you gave with training. You can’t expect to feel great as soon as you have 2-3 easier days.
Also don’t forget to keep the intensity up with above race-pace efforts and next time take a look at the research on taper strategies, there’s some interesting work done on that.
I think the Going Long taper plan is waaay too much for most people who have accumulated lots of weariness. My experience has always been to go way under in hours if I have any hint of over training, or just plain fatigue, and it helps me every time. I guarantee you that you’ll feel much better if you take more time off to get back up to speed. Listen to your body, not some one’s book. You should be able to hear what it is telling you now.
I agree with the others who recommended sticking to the traditional taper plan. Most of us age-group triathletes with jobs, families, etc. are usually not over-trained, but rather under-rested and over-stressed from trying to work 40 or 50 hours per week, get some quality time with the family and train…doesn’t leave enough time for sleep, recovery, flexibility work and good nutrition.
You most probably won’t feel like this on race day… A traditional taper will have you feeling a little down and out… but you’ll come too by race morning… The atmosphere will do it to you and if you race smart, sometime during the run you’ll say to yourself “I feel great”… and after your finished you’ll say something like “I left a little on the course.” Only because being your first 1/2 you’ll be affraid to blow up and DNF… At least that’s what happend to me.
I finished my first 1/2 last year in 5:20. I negative split each quarter of the run finishing the final quarter with an 8:10 pace. Now that’s not “fast” for most on this board, but for me, that 8:10 pace was amazing. I normally finish sprint tri’s with an avg pace of 8:00, let alone an 8:10 after 56bike miles and 10 run miles.
Really! The rest builds you back up, the training breaks you down. Take lots of time off. It is so much more important to be rested. Your body is telling you something, you are overtrained. Read that in Friel. If you are that slayed, you have witdrawn everything from the bank. That’s ok, you are about on schedule. You need to do a “drop dead” taper to get it out 100%. You won’t lose anything in a week-10 days. You will grow stronger by “recovering”. The risk is all on the overtraining and none on the undertraingin at this point. Play the correct percentage.