This is my first year of Triathlon. Everything has been building for an Olympic distance at the end of August in Chicago. I absolutely love the training and have been trying to follow a generic plan with my Garmin. I feel great about my distances I should be good for Chicago. However, I’m looking to compete in a local Triathlon (modified olympic distance, slightly longer bike=33mile) at the end of September. How would you suggest I taper and train over a 4 week period in order to optimize my performance in that race. I was thinking 1 week recover (light workouts) post Chicago, 2 weeks hard, more speed than distance though, then 1 week taper? I can’t find any good resources yet for that.
Listen to your body and be sure to get some quality rest, recovery, and nutrition in just after the Chicago Olympic. I wouldn’t think so much about structure of a “taper” but be flexible and try avoiding the habit of running yourself into the ground with too much load right after the race.
If it were me, I’d take the first week just after the Oly on the lighter / easy side with little and maybe no structure and then resume a strong build the next 2+ weeks. I’d probably back off only a few days before the race - but that’s my style. Resting too much doesn’t help me and I find that I do better after being warmed up a bit during the week.