The Ironman Taper

The Ironman taper can be just as tricky as the Ironman training in itself. Just like any taper, the goal is for you to taper down your workouts and recover to the point at which all of your stored energy is at its max on race day.

I've found that a 4 week Ironman taper works well for me and this year things are going just as planned.

Five weeks out from race day I did a relatively big block of training which put me at around 21 hours of training for the week. Now just because your taper starts four weeks out doesn't mean you relax and do nothing. For me, four weeks out meant a weekly volume of 18 hours with two big bike and run sessions (6 hour bike and 19 mile run). Three weeks out I continued to cut back and my weekly volume reduced to 14 hours. Two weeks out is when my taper kicks into overdrive. I included two off days, but kept my weekly volume still at around 14 hours.

This is the week where you should feel like garbage and trust me I did. My swims were off and I couldn't keep my HR below my aerobic threshold to save my life. I was tired, moody and wondered how in the world I was going to have a good race. I only wondered this for a short period of time though because I knew that this was all part of the process. I knew my body was going into a "hyper-recovery" state and I was going to start reaping the benefits of months of hard training.

By this past weekend (7-8 days from race) things started to click. My swims were getting faster and my bike and run sessions started to feel effortless.

Now for race week. Knowing that there are no gains in fitness this week the primary focus is to stay loose and relaxed. All workouts should build to a steady tempo, you should break a sweat and that's it.

Yesterday (6 days out) I treated myself to a 40 minute aerobic run and my legs felt awesome. I also got a massage last night to hopefully flush out the last bit of toxins. This morning (5 days out) I hit the pool for a easy 2000 yard swim. I'll do another aerobic workout tonight and then Wednesday is a off day! I'll arrive in Lake Placid Thursday morning, get in my scheduled workouts by noon and then start to get my head in the game.

This is going to a great race. I can feel it. I know what I have to do.  Follow me live on race day, this Sunday at www.ironman.com