First HIM in 11 days - taper, last long run/ride suggetions?

Triathlon Forum
1

Howdy all,

Gearing up for my first shot at a half. Had a few quick q’s to submit to the crew for input:

Doing my last long steady (z2) run tomorrow, planning on 10m. Have already ratcheted this down from prior long runs of 16, 14, and 12 in preceeding weeks. Was thinking of maybe doing one last 8m steady run early next week, like Mon or Tues - is this a good or bad idea? Or should I just go with a shorter, easier (z1) run instead?

Wanted to get in one last long ride. Did 2:10 this am, was thinking of doing a 2.5-3hr ish ride on Sat am, at the course (which is mad hilly). I only have longer rides of 42m x3, and 48 and 49 miles so far. Part of me is tempted to try to get in a 3.5-4hr ride this day, but I’m worried about perhaps doing more harm than good that way. Thoughts?

As for that last week, I’m gonna stick w/ the 3 following principles:

Maintain frequency, maintain intensity, and reduce duration. So, with that in mind, here’s my sample last week, submitted for your approval:

Mon - 8m steady run (or maybe 5-6m easy run?)

Tues - 12m bike TT, 2-3m transition run

Wed - VO2max test (call this a 15 min tempo run + 5 mins hard)

Thurs - easy light spin on trainer, maybe some short pickups w/ long rest.

Friday - pre-race brick: 20-30 mins bike w/ pickups, 15 mins run w/ p/u’s

Sat - RACE!

(Yes, I’ll sneak in a swim session or 2 someplace there in the PM’s)

Thanks in advance for your input!

-M

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Ask yourself “what is the purpose of this workout?” for each of those days. If you can’t come up with a good answer (and I’d love to hear some of those answers!), then change the workout. A VO2Max test three days before a half iron distance race, and a bike/run the day before? Hard to imagine.

3

Granted tapering sucks and I absolutely hate tapering. But that “aint” no taper you have planned there. I consider tapering something you have to experiment with as you do most things in tri (calorie consumption, bike pace, etc.). Your taper is supposed to provide time for rest and rebounding. I began tapering Saturday for a 1/2 IM race on the 22nd. I was putting in 15-18 hour weeks prior to this week. This week will be around 9-10. Saturday was a swim bike run brick of 3.5 hours, this makes up the bulk of my week. The rest will be easy runs <:40 (2-3) and easy bike <1:20 (1) and a few swim sessions. Next week will be only 1-2 runs and 2-3 swim sessions including practice swim at race. Nothing hard at all. I guess it also depends on your listing of your races. If it’s a lower priority race and your simply using it as training it shouldn’t matter as much. Good Luck.

4

Ken,

I like the “what is the purpose of this workout?” idea. Here goes:

Well, the VO2 max test scheduling was actually the idea of a local coach whom I’ve gone to for a few various things over the last coupla months. I told him when the race was, and he suggested that doing it that day would be a good, short but intense run workout. (FWIW, it’s done at 7min/mi pace, just the treadmill increases in incline every minute, yer not running faster.)

I always do a “pre-race brick” the day before a Tri. Joel/Gordo specifically talk about that in TTB, how if you take that day off totally, you can feel “flat” on raceday. It’s Z1, with a few short pickups on long rest for both the bike and run. I’m pretty sure Gale B has the same thing (she’s a Joel F disciple) in her book too.

I was thinking of taking the Thursday totally off, but a very easy recovery spin seemed like a good idea too.

The Tues TT/brick deal is just to get in a short (reduced duration - approx 32-33mins for 12m) but intense (hence the TT part) workout while maintaining frequency.

Does this help? Hey - I was asking for input, so if the collective wisdom of SlowTwitchia says I’m an idiot, well, then I’m probably an idiot. :wink:

*** edited to add *** Burt - thx for the input. One thing not shown there is that I’m taking OFF the Sunday prior. The other days are all lower volume than what I’ve been doing the last several weeks.

OK - so it sounds like I’m overdoing it. What would y’all change? (making the Monday run 5m easy vs. 8m steady is a no-brainer - consider that done. That cuts the time down from approx 58 mins to approx 38 mins)

And, I guess the easy recovery spin for Thursday (which was optional) is something I should opt out of?

5

OK, based on the feedback thusfar, I guess “less is more”. So, that answers my q’s about the prior weekend long bike ride (keep it shorter), the steady run (nix it in favor of a shorter, easy run); and so let’s try this on for size, see if y’all think I’m more in the ballpark now:

Sun - REST (0 mins)

Mon - 4-5m easy run (30-38 mins)

Tues - 12m TT*, 2m easy transition run (33min + 15 mins)

(*or, I can do this more of a tempo/upper steady ride, call it 36-38mins then)

Wed - VO2Max test (20-25 mins, max, including warmup. includes 5 mins tempo, 5 hard. Seriously, this isn’t as hard or stupid as it probably sounds)

Thurs - REST (0 mins)

Friday - pre-race brick: 20 mins easy bike w/ a few 20 sec. p/ups, 10 mins easy run (w/ short p/ups). (30 mins)

Sat - RACE!

(Will sneak in 1-2 30-40min easy swim sessions in the earlier part of the week)

Even if I do all of the above, including 2 swims, we’re talking about 4 hours max of training for the week. Probably less, since I’ll likely only be motivated to swim once.

Better?