Taper Time…One More Week To Go!

It is hard to believe that my “A” race for the season, Ironman Muskoka 70.3, is only a week away. With that comes the surprisingly challenging taper weeks. You would think that a relaxation in training volume and intensity would be welcomed with open arms at this time, but strangely it is a bit of a challenge. It is like going 0-100mph and slamming on the brakes! The prior two weeks I was training from 12-13 hours each week and this first week will be about 6-7 hours. The additional free time left me a little confused at first, but I managed to get through it.

I thought I would just flop on the sofa the first night and watch some TV, but of course there isn’t shit on anyway. Why is it, when not watching TV, you feel like your are missing something? Then when you have some time to watch you realize you were never really missing anything anyway? I did end up finishing Rich Roll’s book “Finding Ultra” (which I hope to review soon) and I started reading “The China Study”. Both books are keeping me “pumped up” on my plant-based diet. I also started going to bed a little bit earlier too, which made getting up early much easier. I was then able to get into work earlier which I think shocked a few people. Worst thing was it seemed like lunch would never come.

The other strange thing about a taper week is that you start to feel like crap. I had a 35min run on Wed which should be no big deal, but I felt like I did when I first started running several years ago. I was sucking wind and my legs were all stiff. I actually was starting to panic a bit because I was thinking “what is going on here??” Fortunately, after talking to my coach I realized that this is how you should feel during the first part of a taper. I guess it is your body replenishing itself from all the breaking down that has been done in the past few months.Things actually starting feeling a little better as the weekend progressed.

One thing I thought was pretty cool is to see how my coach’s training program coincided with my TRIMP (Training Impluse) calculations(See image below). The red ATL(Fatigue) is gradually coming down below the blue CTL line(Fitness) to finally come out with a positive TSB Training Stress Balance. The CTL has been very gradually climbing throughout the season, while the ATL peaks and valleys with the increases in volume and recovery weeks. I thought that was pretty cool how that is all coming together. Below the TRIMP graph is my weekly training volumes for the season, which show the periodization of my training program. Hard to believe I have been at this for 9 months already!

I also took advantage of my free workout trial at the HPC. This place is pretty nice, but there sure is a lot of seniors there. I headed into the pool around 7:15am and there was only one woman swimming. I chose the other middle lane and started my workout. The pool itself is nice and I like the 25 meter distance with the extra stroke or two. The pool eventually filled up by the end of my workout and the one lane was doubled up too. I am still a little fearful about joining this place since this may be an issue. I do want to get a good strength program going over the fall and winter so it may be a good time to try it out. Well, time to start getting those packing lists out and start packing up. Short week this week with the holiday and vacation. Stay tuned for some other posts since I have some extra time on my hands.