From everyone else’s experience, what do you recommend for length of taper before an ironman? 2,3…4 weeks?? What’s given you the best results?
Last year was my first Ironman, and 3 weeks out I took maybe 3 or 4 days easy/off becuase I was toast after training so hard. Then after that I did some shorter intensity workouts. My bike rides were like 90 min max, and my runs an hour. Race week was easy swims, 30-40 min bikes and 15 min runs. I was certainly fresh on race day but felt i had lost some fitness. Race still went well though. This year, 3 weeks out, i didnt start taking it easy, but just cut my volume down to about %65 of max. 2 weeks out I took my 3 days easy, but then for the rest of the week did some 1.5-2hr hard interval sets on the bike, and hard 1 hr runs. Race week was the same as usual, easy swims bikes and runs. This year I think I nailed the taper. I felt fresh and strong. If this is your first IM though, I would recommend using a longer taper so you are as fresh as you can feel on race day.
Do you follow a training plan? Is so the plan should have taper built in.
I train mostly by my life schedule(work, family, other obligations, etc.) and gut feel and use only my marathon strategy. Common wisdom is that it takes 1 day of recover per mile run so do your 20 miler run more than 20 days before the race, 10 miler run more than 10 days fore the race, etc.
For Placid, I did a 3 week taper and had a great race(for me).
It really depends on your background.
You definitively want to cut your running “significantly” during the last 2/3 weeks but you can keep swim and bike volume to a certain level.
IMLP 07 was my first IM and I did the following in the last 3 weeks:
Week 3: swim: 3H, bike: 6h30, run: 2h35
Week 2: swim: 2H30, bike: 6h20, run: 2h35
Week 1 (LP): swim: 1h30 (2H45), bike: 4h50 (10h45), run: 1h15 (5h30)
What I did differently was trying to group as much as possible my training.
Cheers,
Fred.