I curious on how long a taper should be for a 70.3. I have my B-race 70.3 next weekend, meaning I have 5 days to taper. I might be a little late starting my tapering, but I want to know for future reference.
Thanks!
It’s a pretty individual thing, and obviously depends on how hard you typically train, how hard you plan to race, and what you have planned after the race.
I’ve done really well at halfs with pretty minimal taper. If the race is on a Sunday I usually do very little on Saturday other than race prep, maybe a little ride or run to stay loose.
Fridays are usually a swim day, so I tend to keep that the same.
Thursday is my key bike day, and I back that off a bit, with a shorter transition run.
Wednesday is easy ride and run, that stays the same.
Tuesday is my key run workout, which I usually back off a bit.
Monday is my main swim day, that stays the same.
Weekend before should probably be a bit lighter, but kind of depends on where it fits into your build. It’s hard to imagine not being able to recover by the following week.
And that’s pretty much taper. If it was your A race you could extend that back another week. Just keep in mind the goal is to be rested and healthy race morning.
I curious on how long a taper should be for a 70.3. I have my B-race 70.3 next weekend, meaning I have 5 days to taper. I might be a little late starting my tapering, but I want to know for future reference.
Thanks!
For optimal recovery you should taper for around 14 days… Or that is what most of the research I’ve seen says. That doesn’t mean doing nothing, rather progressively backing off your distance/intensity over those 2 weeks. You can include some speed work and shorter intense efforts, but they should really be limited. My taper for Lake Stevens starts tomorrow after a very hard last week. I may swim “hard” tomorrow and Wednesday, but the majority of my work will be slowing down.
My A 70.3 race is in two weeks. I’m starting on a taper tomorrow. I’ll reduce my volume for this week by about 15-20%, and reduce the overall intensity. I will do some select hard efforts. Next week will have a greater volume reduction - haven’t worked that out yet - just decided 5 min ago what to do this coming week :-).
So, my typical week is a about 8/4/3 b/r/s by hours. I do a lot of quality, so there are few to no workouts that are “recovery” or “easy”. However, next week I’ll target 7/3.5/2. I will watch my power on the bike, but find some sections to do 30-40 mins of race pace. Same with the run. I’ll get in the back of the lane in the pool, except for a few key sets.
Next week I’ll target the same volume, but I use a little trick where I double count race volume. So a 2:45 race HIM bike counts as 5.5 hrs. That gives me a tool to target less volume prior to the race. I need to map out what I will do that week up to the race, including a possible pre-ride of part of the course (very easy, at least 2 days prior).
I am starting my taper for Muncie, which is next week, tomorrow. Did my last long run on Thursday with a long ride and hard swim Friday then today failed a swim and hit a hard run. The week coming up will be shorter sessions with intensity mixed in there. I am coming off of weeks averaging 13-16 hours of training which is more than last year so we will see how this week goes. But my body doesn’t feel too tired which is good. I have a massage tomorrow to get my body worked on then it’s all about getting ready for Saturday!
I differ slightly.
My A race is Sunday.
Tomorrow, normal Monday swim workout, total @3000-3500scy
Tuesday, planning run with long warmup, a few hill repeats at/above race pace, long CD
Wednesday, same as above but on bike
Thursday off
Friday short swim with 50% pullbuoy
Saturday bike 30min with 3 bursts/15min run with 3 bursts
MAIN OBJECTIVE for the week is SLEEP. My house has kids of 5, 3, and 6 weeks. I think they’re mine.
FWIW, goal time is sub-five, a stretch for me.
F&*K, I went and said it out loud.
Depends a little bit on how much volume you normally do and how big an effort a HIM will be for you even if it’s just a “B” race for you… If you’re training a lot, you probably shouldn’t don’t need to “taper” much at all and depending on proximity to your “A” race, it would be a bad idea to do too much of a taper and give up a lot of quality training. For the last “B” race HIM that I did, I think I went a cut my long run on Friday a little short and just did a 2hr ride/30 min run on Saturday. I still had a good race.
I’m doing a B race this weekend, I’m normally around 14-17 hours a week depending on how much I swim.
I’ve got about 6 hours planned for this week before the race and I ran much shorter yesterday than normal.
jaretj
I agree that my reading shows a 2 weeks progressive taper as best dropping 15-20% volume and lwoering overall intensity, but retaiing plenty of speed work ot keep your legs fresh.
For a B race however, I’d only do a normal “recovery week” prior and not do a 2nd week.
For a “C” race… which is more like a training race, I just train right through it like it’s a normal speed workout and at this last local sprint race, I even race the 5k course twice. I almost did it a 3rd time, but decided against it.
Going form 14-17 hours down to 6 would be too much IMO. You’ll end up feeling a little flat… or at minimum are giving up some of your conditioning with no benefit. Better to drop to maybe 8-10 hours but keep intensity moderate.
Tapering too much could be almost as bad as not enough unless you have an injury or are mentally burnt out.
Going form 14-17 hours down to 6 would be too much IMO. You’ll end up feeling a little flat… or at minimum are giving up some of your conditioning with no benefit. Better to drop to maybe 8-10 hours but keep intensity moderate.
I will be 6 hours plus the 5 it’s going to take me for the HIM so 11 hours total which is 65% to 78% of my normal week.