When to taper
rob chalmers
Posts: 113
Morning Everyone,
Quick Question,
I'm training for my first 70.3 in July and I am doing a few sprints and Std's as practice
This time next week I have the West Lancs Sprint. Do I need to taper for that? as my current training distances are above the section distances?
I'm not planning any big rides(60k+) the or runs (15k+) this week, just technique sessions and transition bricks (does that kind of count as taper?)
I'm not going for a PB on sunday as the ride and the swim are shorter than your average Pool based sprint (400/18.5) and therefore unrepresentative. I'm mainly doing it to practice T1/T2 under pressure and test the shiny new stuff I bought over the winter
0
Comments
From what you have described above you view this race as a hard training session and some race practice, i.e. it sounds like a C race. In which case an extensive taper isn't a big issue. If you are working to 70.3 shape and you are regularly going 60k+ on the bike or 15k on the run the race is going to be substantially shorter than many on your longer training sessions, albeit at a higher intensity.
Personally I wouldn't taper too much for this, I'd have a rest day the day before and avoid any really big tempo runs. It sounds like you are having a low intensity week so you shouldn't be suffering too much fatigue so probably nothing to stress about too much. What I would caution is that, for a Sunday race it might be worth injecting a little bit of pace into a 30 minute or so run on Thursday morning, just so your legs remember what intensity is like, and I generally like a short sharp swim session on a Friday morning to remind my body what swimming hard feels like.
The short answer, if you don't care about the result/PBs and this is about transitions and getting that racing feel going on then its not worth worrying about too much of a taper, just don't do anything that'll bury yourself. Others might disagree and different people will adopt differing approaches.
To put this into context I did the Windsor Standard Duathlon last weekend and buried myself with a 70 minute tempo run on Thursday morning (training for marathon and a May 70.3) so these shorter races should be well within your training capabilities as you prep for the 70.3s.