I would appreciate some of your thoughts regarding an OLY taper. My season ending A race is the Westchester Triathlon on September 23rd. I will be taking some time off after the race, so I am not concerned about holding on to any kind of fitness, just going as fast as possible that morning. For a point of reference, it will be my second OLY race, my first was the NJ State Triathlon earlier in the summer. The course was non-wetsuit legal and flat. I went 2:25 (22 swim, 68 bike (19.9mph) and 49 run (8:01 miles). This is my second season of tris, but my first year with a serious training plan. I am 30 yrs old and have a swimming background.
Here is my current training regiment:
Monday - PM long run, 10 miles moderate
Tuesday - AM - 6 miles somewhat easy
PM - gym - stretching, abs, weights (1 hour), then Swim about 4500yds
Wednesday - AM - 45 to 60 mins bike on trainer
PM - 6 mile trail run, moderately hilly, done almost all out
Thursday - PM - gym - run 6 miles on the treadmill moderate, stretching, abs and weights (1 hour)
Friday - PM - 20 mile bike, fairly hard
Saturday - Brick - bike 18-20 miles, run 4-5 miles, done almost all out
Sunday - 30-40 mile bike
I added in the Sunday bike during the last month, before that Sundays were off.
I have a sprint tri on September 8th (2 weeks before race) that I will use as workout/tune-up, not resting at all.
What would you suggest I do with my taper? I was think of dropping the weights and abs 3 weeks out from the race. What would you suggest with all this? Thanks.
You see, everyone’s taper is specifc to that individual - you may react badly to someone else’s that works really well for them. In addition, you would really need to know in detail what & when & how you have done in training for the past few months.
Here’s a tip in prep for your A race:
Do your normal tough training weeks x 2, then an easy week. Repeat. Then do a 50% volume week, then a 25% volume week.
The easy weeks are not all at easy pace, just reduced volume and less intensity: enough to recover, again this is individual. Your 50%/25% volume weeks should have more intensity, but not too much to leave you tired for the race.
A plan like this is a decent template for someone who trains hard (relative to their current ability) - two weeks taper and having easy weeks may represent wasted time for the very slow & the very fast.
Trial & error will tell you what works & what doesn’t.
I agree with what NM said. It’s very individual and I would advise you to not take too much stock in what other people are saying about taper. Two people with similar fitness levels can have dramatically different taper needs.
Personally I tend to do better on a very limited taper. For an oly only a few days, half iron about a week. However I know athletes who are equally fit and need more than this.
My best advice is to look at your training log and find your best performances in training and other races and see how much rest/taper you had before those and use that info to determine your taper needs.
Taper, whats a taper? I train basically the same way 12 months a year. The only thing I do differently before a race weekend is swim 2 days before, and then nothing else.
Most give me this blank look when I tell them I have no taper. One has to be good to worry about a taper, IMO.
When I look back at really good workouts that I have had lately, I am finding that they are in the middle of hard training. I would go into the workout not feeling so great and then do much better than I thought. Coming from a swimming background, where the events are so short and you taper for over a month, its hard to believe that such a short taper will work. I am beginning to see that it will though.
When somebody says “I taper 2 days for an A race OLY.” , does that mean they don’t change anything regarding workout distance and intensity until 2 days before the race? Really?
The race is on a Sunday, so I was thinking about dropping the Monday long from 10 miles to 8 miles. Then maybe drop my Wednesday hard trail run from six miles to 4 miles and still go hard. Stuff like that. Am I way off here?
Keep tracking your training and your tapers to find what works best for you. What I do is cut my volume/duration in half the week of the race, but keep the frequency & intensity.
In an ideal world, if it were my “A” race, I might try this:
Tu - One last med. + somewhat intense run (4-6 miles; 15-20 minutes of that tempo (or) 3-4 1/2-mile intervals)
W - Same for the bike (1-1.5 hours; some 2-3 min. intervals at race pace or a bit faster)
Th - 60 min. brick at easy pace (include a few 1-2 min. intervals)
F- Zero
Sat - a tiny bit of everything (15-20 min each sport)
Sun - race
Add in swimming wherever …
This is just copying from running and tri plans I have used. But I have also barely tapered (2-day) and done just as well, so who knows ???
So much of this is really what works for each individual and I have found a lot of it is trial and errror. If I’ve been doing mega training my taper will be more restful if not it will be less restful.
A lot of it is monitoring your body on a daily basis which is why it’s hard to plan a taper so far ahead of time. If you come into the time you were planning on for your taper and you are well rested you can hit it a little harder.
Taper= frequent short intense workouts with adequate rest. Don’t do anything long.