Tapering Concepts for the Life Time Fitness Triathlon

Tapering Concepts for the Life Time Fitness Triathlon

By Coach Troy Jacobson

You've trained hard, eaten the right foods, selected the best equipment and you're ready to go as race day is less than a week away. Now what?!

At this stage in the game, the "Water is under the bridge", so to speak. This means that you cannot really do anything to boost your fitness to look for that final 1-3% in performance.  In my experience, the only thing you can do now is screw up and do too much, leaving you at less than 100% capacity, if you're not careful.  This is when a well-conceived tapering plan comes into play.

Leading into the final week before a big race, you need to treat your body like the finely tuned race machine it has become.  Just like a Formula I race car getting ready for the big event, you need to tune your engine with short and quick workouts, feed it with high octane fuels and rest it with quality sleep and relaxation.  The small things count, such as getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night, taking 15-20 min. cat naps during the day and sitting down whenever possible.  Reducing psychological stressors to a minimum, like busy work travel schedules or even domestic activities (i.e. like hosting a huge July 4^th Party!) can play a huge role in your success or failure on race day.  Do everything you can to maintain an 'edge', but be mellow and relaxed.

With regard to training, you'll want to taper your volume while still maintaining some level of 'race pace' intensity in all three sports. This might mean doing a 5-10 min. threshold effort on the bike on Tuesday, 4x400's at 10K pace on the run on Wednesday and a set of 50's 'hard' in the pool on Thursday, race week.  It also means doing some lighter aerobic workouts to stay sharp, maintain a certain level of calorie expenditure (So as not to feel bloated and heavy) and to boost your aerobic enzyme activity.  Tapering is as much of an art as it is a science, so learn from your own mistakes and you'll someday land on a taper strategy that's best for you.  Taper too much or too little, and you'll likely suffer the consequences of feeling both flat and tired on race day.  Find the balance and don't deviate too much from your regular weekly training pattern.

When you toe the line race morning, you want to feel rested physically and mentally confident in your ability to push yourself to a higher level than you ever accomplish in day to day training. 

Have an enjoyable taper and an incredible race!

_ Coach Troy