4 Great Taper Workouts for Race Week

4 Great Taper Workouts for Race Week!

Race week is a special time for iron distance athletes. It I a culmination of weeks and months of hard work and many sacrifices. It is a time to get ready to ask your body to go above and beyond the norm. The days leading up to Race Day need to be carefully planned out so as to give the athlete plenty of rest but also enough activity so as not to feel “flat”. There should be nothing too intense during race week minus a few short high intensity pick- ups on the bike and run. These are not long workout sessions by any stretch. The idea is to raise HR for a few seconds at a time then recover. Below are a few examples of race week workouts that I use with my athletes.

Swim 1500

Warm up: 200 easy freestyle

Drills: 4X50 open water sighting drill – keep head out of water

Main Set: 2X400 easy freestyle with 30 seconds rest in between Cooldown: 300 easy freestyle

Bike 1:00

Warm up 5 min and ease into an easy spin on a flat road. Higher cadence focusing on pedaling skills. Nothing above Z3. The idea is to keep your legs fresh and from going flat on race day.

IM Swim Practice- practice putting on your wetsuit, cap, goggles. Get in the water and swim

400-500 yards breathing on both sides, going around a few buoys. Do a few short sprints and note your sighting objects.

Run :30

Strides This little workout is designed to keep your legs fresh for race day. I recommend doing it the day before race day. Warm up 1 mile easy. Then do 8X30 second strides on a flat road, track, or treadmill. Start slow then pick up to max speed toward the end of the 30 seconds. Recover for 30 seconds or so before the next effort. Cool down easy jog 5-10 minutes. Stretch and mobility.

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