In our first newsletter of 2017 we let you know how to make your own training plan. The Build period is almost ready and what is left is two Peak weeks and one Race week. The last couple of weeks of preparation for your top priority race will be used to taper. The length of the taper can be different per person. How to execute the perfect taper is something that even the most experienced professional still struggles with. The right taper can bring you to the start-line fully rested en ready to race to your potential. A wrong taper on the other hand may leave you at the starting line feeling flat and out of energy. If you would lean back with your feed up for the last 3 weeks and don’t do any work-out, your body will go into full recovery-modus. You will probably feel rested on race-day, but you will not be ready to race. The trick is to let the body rest, but also stimulate it slightly to keep it in stand-by mode, so that it is ready to go full throttle on race-day. How to execute this will vary between persons. A guideline you can use is to decrease the volume per week while maintaining short intensive work-outs. Some of you would like to take the day off before a race while others will prefer a light training. There is no right or wrong in this. Here are some examples for work-outs you can perform during race-week:
Tuesday: 1½ hour bike with 4x 90 sec. at Race Pace followed by 45 min run with 4x 90 sec. at Race Pace.
Wednesday: 1 hour bike with 4x 60 sec. at Race Pace followed by 30 min run with 4x 60 sec. at Race Pace.
Thursday: 45 min bike with 4x 30 sec. at Race Pace followed by 20 min run with 4x 30 sec. at Race Pace.
You can also do some short swim work-outs with short race-pace sessions.
Have fun and good luck with your last part of training.