Proper Taper - Triathlon Week

08-23-2004, 06:39 PM

I just did the Ponte Vedra Beach Sprint Series race yesterday here in Fla.
I've been focusing on my swimming, doing maybe 8,000 yards/meters a week.
Unfortunately, they canceled the swim event yesterday because of Portuguese
men of war and rough surf conditions, substituting a one mile beach run.

So all of my swimming work was more or less wasted and I was not terribly
prepared for a running/biking event.

Now to the question...

I was still working hard on the swim two nights before the race and had a
pretty agressive hour and a quarter workout. (I was sick during the prior
week and felt I needed to make up for some lost time.) On Friday (the day
before the race) my calves were insanely stiff.

My run time on the 5K was over 29 minutes -- which was really horrible. I
suspect I would have done several minutes better if I had knocked off the
swimming earlier. When is the correct time to dial down the activity for a
sprint tri?

08-23-2004, 06:39 PM

Depends on what type of race it is for you ... an A race (one you have been
focussing your efforts on) or B race (part of your racing season but not the
'big' race of the year) or C race - just want to finish. Keeping in mind
that typically people can only peak a few times during the racing season.

Tapering like most everything else is very personal thing and you have to
experiment with what works for you. I would suggest doing a google search
on the topic to give you lots of ideas about what others use as a taper
schedule.

I hope this helps.

BBB
"Twinkletoes" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:ivOpc.23761$[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. ..
> I just did the Ponte Vedra Beach Sprint Series race yesterday here in Fla.
> I've been focusing on my swimming, doing maybe 8,000 yards/meters a week.
> Unfortunately, they canceled the swim event yesterday because of
Portuguese
> men of war and rough surf conditions, substituting a one mile beach run.
>
> So all of my swimming work was more or less wasted and I was not terribly
> prepared for a running/biking event.
>
> Now to the question...
>
> I was still working hard on the swim two nights before the race and had a
> pretty agressive hour and a quarter workout. (I was sick during the prior
> week and felt I needed to make up for some lost time.) On Friday (the day
> before the race) my calves were insanely stiff.
>
> My run time on the 5K was over 29 minutes -- which was really horrible. I
> suspect I would have done several minutes better if I had knocked off the
> swimming earlier. When is the correct time to dial down the activity for
a
> sprint tri?
>
>