OK, Eagleman is next Sunday so I’m wondering when to start my taper and how much I should cut it back. Generally I don’t taper much, If its a Sunday race I’ll have a normal training week through Thursday, I’ll have any easy workout on Friday and take Saturday off (maybe practice a few transitions).
Does this sound about right or should I cut back more?
Dave in VA
I’d be easing up until Wednesday, do your easy workout on Thursday. take of Friday, and do as little as possible on Saturday.
OK, Eagleman is next Sunday so I’m wondering when to start my taper and how much I should cut it back. Generally I don’t taper much, If its a Sunday race I’ll have a normal training week through Thursday, I’ll have any easy workout on Friday and take Saturday off (maybe practice a few transitions).
Does this sound about right or should I cut back more?
Dave in VA
First, what age group are you in?
It sounds wrong, you should be tapering a lot more. Also friday is a better day to take off.
“First, what age group are you in?”
30-34
Dave in VA
.
“First, what age group are you in?”
30-34
Dave in VA
Well, no problem then (I’m 47). If this is an important race for you, and you aren’t just training right through it, you should have been cutting back on volume already. I think it’s okay to do some shorter, hard stuff as long as you give yourself plenty of recovery time between workouts (like two days after a hard bike or run interval; maybe not so much for swimming).
You want to arrive on 6/12 absolutely itching to go fast.
Your taper should last for 3-4 days if that isn’t an important race. If you are going to take it seriously you should consider a full week of tapering. If the race is on sunday, take friday off and do some short workouts on sathurday. Usually, my coach likes us to do something like 40’ on the water, 1h on the bike and 20’-25’ on the run. If you are going for the three disciplines the day after, just remember: short workouts all before noon.
Hey DC,
I am actually tapering for Eagleman next weekend as well. I started cutting my mileage this week. This weekend I will proably do a moderate/light paced 20/4 brick. Between Mon-Thurs, I plan to squeeze in 2 swim/bike/run workouts. All short and moderate/light paced workouts. Fri and Sat I will only stretch for 1 hour each day to stay loose. Then I will rip it up on Sun baby! I’ve taperd like this before and it seems to work for me. Good luck!
The Other TD
Crap, I was planning my usual 20/10 brick on Sat and an easy 70 mile ride on Sun. Maybe I should reconsider?
Dave in VA
Before noon? Really? Damn… I didn’t know that!
Oops… let’s keep it a secret, ok ? :))
Well, I just asked a similar question a few weeks back, and my take on it was, you are definitely better off doing less, for a longer period, than not. (for instance, for IM’s, many folks taper for 2-4 weeks; for sprints, you only need a coupla days. So, for a HIM, probably somewhere in between is where ya wanna be…)
The old “it’s better to be 10% undertrained, than 1% overtrained” deal.
Agree with SAC, I always take a day off **2 **days before the race. Then the day before in the am, do a very short and light brick, like say: 20 mins bike 10 mins run, just to keep the feel and not get any rust (plus, make sure the bike is working right, practice T2 once more, all that good stuff).
You can’t gain any more fitness now, but you sure can screw yerself up but good by doing too much at this point. I took that to heart, and cut back pretty dramatically, and it worked for me, I felt great on race day and had a good (for me) result.
If the race is on sunday, take friday off and do some short workouts on sathurday. Usually, my coach likes us to do something like 40’ on the water, 1h on the bike and 20’-25’ on the run. If you are going for the three disciplines the day after, just remember: short workouts all before noon.
Short?!? That’d be like my second longest workout of the week! Maybe this doesn’t apply to us older folk, who need serious recovery time from just about anything. What is the purpose of this workout the day before a half IM?
DC,
For me, I know I am not gonna gain any fitness in these 2 weeks leading up to the race…But I sure as hell can degrade my fitness by going too long or going too hard. So basically, these last 2 weeks for me is just to stay loose…like i said…works for me…
The Other TD
Deal. The doughnuts are on the way…
To all in the men’s 30-34 age-group at Eagleman,
Make sure to stay sharp in your race preparations with several five or six hour tempo rides and at least one or two 15+ mile runs in the week before Eagleman…high volume = fast, right? Don’t forget the 6,000m+ swim workouts.
See ya on Sunday!
Cheers,
Matt
To all in the men’s 30-34 age-group at Eagleman,
Make sure to stay sharp in your race preparations with several five or six hour tempo rides and at least one or two 15+ mile runs in the week before Eagleman…high volume = fast, right? Don’t forget the 6,000m+ swim workouts.
To all in the men’s 30-34 age-group at Eagleman,
Make sure to stay sharp in your race preparations with several five or six hour tempo rides and at least one or two 15+ mile runs in the week before Eagleman…high volume = fast, right? Don’t forget the 6,000m+ swim workouts.
…and for those of you in the men’s 25-29 age-group, I would recommend at least double that 
Also, I would restrict calorie intake throughout the week, you should be good to go on about 1000 calories a day so you can be lean and fast 
~Jason
LOL… it depends… if they’re at the race site, it is good to get done before lunch. If travelling, it’s good to get the run in after getting to the race site. Anyway, doing all three is not for every athlete.
And btw Klep, for your last race you actually had a 2-week taper
Been told and read this: 3 days and 2 days before are most important for just about any race. I would swim very lightly (20 min?) and cycle a tad (45 min?) on Thursday, do nothing except a little stretching Friday and do very light SBR (as mentioned above) on Saturday morning. Eating and sleeping are also most important on Thu. and Fri. Sleep a lot Thu. and Fri. if possible and eat right. I can never sleep well the night before an ‘A’ race so I try to be well rested two nights before. Good luck! -TB