Despite competing in triathlon for a few years now, I still struggle with how to recover and taper. After the Half Ironman race at Trentham last Sunday, I have been reflecting on what worked and what didn’t during the pre-race and the event itself.
Taper – I managed to hold a big block of training during the first 3 weeks of July. This period included 3 races that I pretty much trained right through. It was particularly hard doing long runs the day after races. However, the week prior to racing at Trentham, I reduced the volume and intensity of training significantly. The only hard training I did was a turbo session of 3 x 6 mins at 330W on the Wed prior to the race on Sunday. That session is normally 6 x 6 mins. I also took 2 days leave on the Thursday and Friday prior to the race. I had heaps of sleep. The result was that I felt fresh – but not stale. This is different to the taper I completed for the London marathon. For that race I tapered gradually for 3 weeks and I felt stale come race day.
Nutrition – As I mentioned in the race report, I could not eat my intended solids. Even drinking was a struggle. I was just so ‘full-on’ during the bike leg, eating and drinking was a real problem. So, for the world champs, where the bike and run are longer, I will reduce the effort on the bike ………to almost ‘full-on’!! If I am struggling to eat then I shall slow down. If I don’t, I know that the 30k run will be a real suffer fest………….after the London Marathon ‘bonk’ I can’t face that feeling again!!
Recovery – Post race I am not feeling half as bad as I expected. That said, I am fatigued. Being back at work means early mornings. Having a couple of late nights due to family stuff seems to have knocked me sideways a bit. This just goes to show how important sleep is!
Taper – I managed to hold a big block of training during the first 3 weeks of July. This period included 3 races that I pretty much trained right through. It was particularly hard doing long runs the day after races. However, the week prior to racing at Trentham, I reduced the volume and intensity of training significantly. The only hard training I did was a turbo session of 3 x 6 mins at 330W on the Wed prior to the race on Sunday. That session is normally 6 x 6 mins. I also took 2 days leave on the Thursday and Friday prior to the race. I had heaps of sleep. The result was that I felt fresh – but not stale. This is different to the taper I completed for the London marathon. For that race I tapered gradually for 3 weeks and I felt stale come race day.
Nutrition – As I mentioned in the race report, I could not eat my intended solids. Even drinking was a struggle. I was just so ‘full-on’ during the bike leg, eating and drinking was a real problem. So, for the world champs, where the bike and run are longer, I will reduce the effort on the bike ………to almost ‘full-on’!! If I am struggling to eat then I shall slow down. If I don’t, I know that the 30k run will be a real suffer fest………….after the London Marathon ‘bonk’ I can’t face that feeling again!!
Recovery – Post race I am not feeling half as bad as I expected. That said, I am fatigued. Being back at work means early mornings. Having a couple of late nights due to family stuff seems to have knocked me sideways a bit. This just goes to show how important sleep is!
That’s all folks.
3 comments:
The new bike isn't too aero mate I would work on your position prior to racing again.
Sorry to hear it is working well after races. I seem to struggle as well. I find the coach takes all the responsibility away from me and plans it all to flow accordingly now. I just have to turn up and train.
Forget about the race and enjoy the festivities...I have never been happier with performances or results than now!
Can't afford a coach dude. I will have to continue with bumbling my way through!
Sags, i've been self coached including my road racing days and its never done me any harm. It would be nice to have your training mapped out but as with you I don't have it in my funding to get a coach. Your results this year show that the self coaching is working for you.
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