I guess I should start tapering for this weekend's Manhattan Half Marathon? I mean, its ONLY a half marathon ;).....im kidding! A half marathon is not really a "hey lets go out for an easy 13.1 miles!" It will involve pain, especially in the last 5K....at least for me it will.
But the last time I did a race that was over an hour was my last triathlon, and that involved a 13.1 mile run after a 56 mile bike after a 1.2 mile swim, so my perspective on running 13.1 miles by itself is now permanently skewed.
Back to tapering, I have learned that every taper is different. It depends on how important the race is (A, B, C, etc), what day it falls on, when the next race is and if its an end of the season race. For this half marathon, I am bringing the running way down in frequency this week by only doing 5 yesterday, 4 tomorrow, then sorta resting for Sunday.
I am still keeping up with the biking this week (hey, a 56 mile bike portion still hurts! can't drop the biking entirely) but I am bringing the intensity down but increasing the time (I love training load!). For example this morning I did 20 miles, but kept the watts around 100 in zone 1-2 to not kill myself, but that meant going about 5 mins longer. No problem, the legs feel fine and I got the distance in. I need to repeat this Friday morning and then put in 30 easy mins Saturday.
Swimming will stay the same this week....in fact I did my first 3000 yarder of the season @ lunch today. I stayed purely aerobic and did 2X's through descending sets:
500
400
300
200
100
Boring, yes, but it got the job done and didn't totally destroy me.
Now for hydration. I am ALREADY getting super hydrated. One thing that I learned from following Lance Armstrong during his earlier glory days, especially from a super hot TT during the 2003 Tour de France is that your hydration issues will surface themselves not because of poor hydration that day, but from poor hydration days before. I have good luck by staying super hydrated the days leading up to a race, but then backing off the morning of to limit potty breaks.
Hey, the clock don't stop on the toilet!
Do you have any funky taper rituals?
I try to spend time that I would normally be training with the family. They need to be a priority at least once or twice a year!
ReplyDeleteHi Jon,
ReplyDeleteI am thinking that you are much more ready for your half than I am for mine!! I just want to live and something tells me that you would like to PR:)
Good Luck and can't wait to compare notes!!!
Jon, Good luck!
ReplyDeleteNo funky taper rituals here, unless you count sleep. Funky in that I don't get to do it as much during the build weeks.
Was outside on my bike yesterday...glorious!
Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteNo taper rituals, unless you call feeling antsy a ritual. Probably not, though. I just get super restless.