My training has been very consistent and feeling great, I’m doing a very short sprint this Sunday but my taper got a little interrupted. I was planning on doing an easy run today and Sat. off in preparation for Sunday, but work has been busy and I didn’t get to do anything today at all. Is that too much downtime for this race? Never had this happen before and have always been able to do a good taper. It’s a .3 mile swim, 13 mile bike, 5k run, so it’s not a killer distance. Any thoughts? Okay, smartass remarks are welcome too, I mean it is Friday night after all.
Lots of people would say that today is the better day to take completely off. Then tomorrow do a short workout with some pickups so your legs don’t have that “stale” feeling from an off day…
Go out and do a short 20 - 30 minute run. Warm up 10 minutes and do several 60 - 90 seconds pick ups that are about or a little slower than you 5k triathlon race pace with rest intervals of at least time of pick up. Depending on fitness, you can go longer on the run or opt for a 30 - 90 minute bike with pick ups and lots of spinning. Do the workout early in the morning. Two days before the race is really the best day to rest so don’t stress about missing a workout.
Watch out for the gators.
Just do a tiny bit tomorrow to remind your body. Its more mental than anything.
I also have a Sunday sprint race.
Today: I slept almost 9 hours last night. Astounding for me. I also had a 2-hour massage. (No, not just for this race)
I did about 20 min. of yardwork, but lazily. A few minutes (maybe 1-2 hours total) on my feet, cleaning & errands.
Tomorrow a.m. I will do a “baby” R-B-R: Like 5 min. + 20 min. + 10 minutes. A few 60 sec. pickups on the bike and 2nd run. I will probably also swim some or all of the 700-yard course, since its 4 miles from my house.
I am planning on a good warmup before the race, especially swim warmup as the lake is very cold. For me that’s 10 min. run + 15 bike (easy with 20 sec. pickups) completed 30 min. before the start … Then I’ll get in water and swim a bit 8-10 min. before the start
Good luck!
Thanks for the info., good to know that two days before is the ideal rest day. I’ll definitely be able to get a run or bike in today.
Your tapering for a sprint? This early in the racing season? Is this a or your only shot at making money in a race or a national championships? So when you say taper, to me it means this is the basket I just stuck the overwhelming majority of my eggs for this season race. If so then your taper should have started 5-10 days ago. If this is not the race I’m sticking the majority of my eggs in one basket type of race, then why would you interrupt your normally scheduled Saturday training especially since you say it is a Sunday race?
A person only has so many times they can truly taper in a season. A series of mini tapers, short changing your training ove many times through the season is a sure fire reciepe to leave a few eggs in the basket for the race where you are sticking the majority of your eggs into 1 basket race rolls around.
Or another way to look at it is, your total training stress for a sprint race is typically well below what I would consider a normal weekend training day. In effect the race is a sort of recovery day itself since your total time spent working out is waaay less even though the intensity is waaay higher.
Your tapering for a sprint? This early in the racing season? Is this a or your only shot at making money in a race or a national championships? So when you say taper, to me it means this is the basket I just stuck the overwhelming majority of my eggs for this season race. If so then your taper should have started 5-10 days ago. If this is not the race I’m sticking the majority of my eggs in one basket type of race, then why would you interrupt your normally scheduled Saturday training especially since you say it is a Sunday race?
A person only has so many times they can truly taper in a season. A series of mini tapers, short changing your training ove many times through the season is a sure fire reciepe to leave a few eggs in the basket for the race where you are sticking the majority of your eggs into 1 basket race rolls around.
Or another way to look at it is, your total training stress for a sprint race is typically well below what I would consider a normal weekend training day. In effect the race is a sort of recovery day itself since your total time spent working out is waaay less even though the intensity is waaay higher.
Well it’s more like I have a life outside of triathlon, I was too heavily dedicated in the 90’s and now I race on a purely recreational level, it may be the center of your universe but not mine. I knew my work week would be very hectic and tiring and planned accordingly. Taper, don’t taper, your call. I’ll only be doing a couple races, again, not the end of the world for me, I was just curious about the effect of not getting a workout in two days before a race, I paid my $60 and would still like to have a good race. Hell, if SC got decent surf on a fairly regular basis I wouldn’t be racing at all, one of the things I do miss about Jersey.
“Another way to look at it is, your total training stress for a sprint race is typically well below what I would consider a normal weekend training day. In effect the race is a sort of recovery day itself since your total time spent working out is waaay less even though the intensity is waaay higher.”
I agree with that. I don’t really taper except for the one big half I do each summer; But I do believe in the mini taper, only for its mental benefits … So, question for you coach: If you race a sprint or olympic every 3 weeks isn’t it good (best?) to have the races fall at the end of a “rest week” anyway? So the athlete would do very little Thursday through Monday (say 5-8 hours, including the race, total instead of 12). Then get back at it a couple days after the race and have another good 15 days of training; 6 easy … repeat?
I agree with that. I don’t really taper except for the one big half I do each summer; But I do believe in the mini taper, only for its mental benefits … So, question for you coach: If you race a sprint or olympic every 3 weeks isn’t it good (best?) to have the races fall at the end of a “rest week” anyway? So the athlete would do very little Thursday through Monday (say 5-8 hours, including the race, total instead of 12). Then get back at it a couple days after the race and have another good 15 days of training; 6 easy … repeat?
Well if you typically schedule in rest weeks, then racing off the end of them isn’t a bad idea, but racing in the middle of them would be a better idea. The you are not compromising the beginning of the next “hard” week. But my problem with this is that you really need blocks longer then 2 weeks to adapt to a particular type of training. (ie LT, Vo2). I would personally structure the training completely different then 2 weeks of whatever and one down week.
Race in the middle of the rest period: Got it. Makes more sense, since even a sprint can wear you out for 48 hours. (although a long, easy bike ride after a short running race or sprint race can feel great). … So this might work better with a 3-week block of increasing training load, then rest/race for 6-7 days / repeat? Also, wouldn’t an oly be a great high intensity training morning anyway, so wouldn’t it be part of a plan that includes tempo/LT?
I concur with dd, thetodd. I’m doing the sprint on Sunday…no taper. 30 miles on the bike this morning. 5-8 mile run this afternoon (Saturday). Friday was 6x4 minute intervals on the bike.
The CSTS are races to “train through”. The ONLY thing I do to my training schedule to accomodate sprints is to count them as one of my hard workouts. I usually drop run speedwork that week…though I didn’t even do that this week. I’ve got run speedwork, run tempo, bike 2x20 and the 6x4 workouts all in my legs since Tues.
As dd said…its early season…treat it like training.