No taper racing

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Cupcake Girl
Bruce Kidd
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No taper racing

Postby Cupcake Girl » Wed May 09, 2012 3:21 pm

I'm doing my first HIM Labour Day weekend.

But in between I'm doing some road races - 10s, 20-miler, 15K. I am thinking of not really tapering for any of them. Just going about my training, so if the Sunday race follows a 100K Saturday ride, so be it.

My thought process is that trying to push/race on tired legs would be more beneficial to the HIM run when my legs will be really toasty than constantly tapering.

Thoughts?

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Jwolf
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No taper racing

Postby Jwolf » Wed May 09, 2012 3:29 pm

"Training through" non-peak races without tapering makes a lot of sense for the reasons you describe, but also because you don't want to lose a lot of training to tapering and recovery. But since the race efforts will likely be a lot harder than a normal workouts, you'll probably have to adjust your workouts around them. This will depend on the length of each race and how hard you plan to race it, but may mean an extra easy day before or after or shifting around long run or tempo run. If you try to just add the race to your normal training load you may be pushing too much intensity in the week- may be ok for one week but repeatedly it could catch up to you.
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CinC
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Re: No taper racing

Postby CinC » Wed May 09, 2012 3:52 pm

I tend to follow this philosophy in training for Ironman. Since the beginning of the year, I've raced an olympic tri (the tail end of a heavy week of training in Kona thus cooked legs), 2 half marathons, a 10k and a 5k (all of them personal best or very close to it). No tapers were built into any of these races - typically an 'easier' day was built a day or two prior, but just this past weekend with running the half in Vancouver during my IM taper, I did a hard coached 2hr spin on Sat and then was 20sec off my half PB on Sunday. I didn't really feel any effects from Sat's ride while on Sunday.

Your A race is your half IM. These 'training cycle' races are not the main event, but they're good tests of your endurance, nutrition, mental games and if you get a PB or two out of them, they're huge confidence boosts as well. And for me, your A race might not be the day you had intended, so by getting a few good races in during the training cycle, it helps to make that training cycle 'worth it'.
Race Hard. Race Happy.

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carm
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Re: No taper racing

Postby carm » Wed May 09, 2012 6:03 pm

I don't have much to add. For my "A" HIM last summer, I did a spring 1/2 m ("A" running race since it was early), a "B" 10K, 2 tune-up Oly's and a 5K run test from about March-July with Timberman being in late August. All except Vancouver 1/2 were un-tapered with an easier bike or swim workout the day before or a complete rest day. They are excellent opportunities to figure out pacing, fueling and everything that was mentioned above. They also keep things fresh and exciting as you are putting in lots of training during the summer.

Good luck and have fun with these races. It's your time to let loose, gain a bit of fitness on tired everything (LOL!) and have a little fun since there's no pressure to churn out an "A" effort for some "B" or "C" races.
Carm

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jamix
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Re: No taper racing

Postby jamix » Wed May 09, 2012 6:09 pm

CinC wrote:I tend to follow this philosophy in training for Ironman. Since the beginning of the year, I've raced an olympic tri (the tail end of a heavy week of training in Kona thus cooked legs), 2 half marathons, a 10k and a 5k (all of them personal best or very close to it). No tapers were built into any of these races - typically an 'easier' day was built a day or two prior, but just this past weekend with running the half in Vancouver during my IM taper, I did a hard coached 2hr spin on Sat and then was 20sec off my half PB on Sunday. I didn't really feel any effects from Sat's ride while on Sunday.

Your A race is your half IM. These 'training cycle' races are not the main event, but they're good tests of your endurance, nutrition, mental games and if you get a PB or two out of them, they're huge confidence boosts as well. And for me, your A race might not be the day you had intended, so by getting a few good races in during the training cycle, it helps to make that training cycle 'worth it'.


Yeah but your capable of 20 hr training weeks too. Not all of us were build so tough :lol: .
2013 GOALS:

- Compete in the "Early Bird Sprint Triathlon" in May
- Run a 5km pb during the "Bushtukah Canada Day Road Race"
- Complete an Olympic distance triathlon
- Cycle > 33 km / hr during the cycle portion of a Sprint Triathlon.
- Stay healthy and happy

Races

April 28th: Manotick 10km (40:16)
May 18th: Ottawa Early Bird Sprint Triathlon (DNF)
June 8th: Riverkeeper SuperSprint (2nd overall)
July 1st: Bushtukah Canada Day 5km (18:37)

Mark.AU
Bill Crothers
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Re: No taper racing

Postby Mark.AU » Wed May 09, 2012 11:40 pm

Cupcake Girl wrote:My thought process is that trying to push/race on tired legs would be more beneficial to the HIM run when my legs will be really toasty than constantly tapering.

Yes. ;)
“We are what we think. / All that we are arises with our thoughts. / With our thoughts we make the world.” Dhammapada,

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La
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Re: No taper racing

Postby La » Thu May 10, 2012 11:36 am

I concur with all of the above. :)
"Maybe I will be my own inspiration." - UltraMonk (Laura)
"Everywhere is walking distance if you have enough time." - Steven Wright

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jamix
Bill Crothers
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Re: No taper racing

Postby jamix » Thu May 10, 2012 12:07 pm

On the other hand, perhaps it would be more beneficial to do a short taper, and then just do a bike-run TT (plus its free :D ).
2013 GOALS:

- Compete in the "Early Bird Sprint Triathlon" in May
- Run a 5km pb during the "Bushtukah Canada Day Road Race"
- Complete an Olympic distance triathlon
- Cycle > 33 km / hr during the cycle portion of a Sprint Triathlon.
- Stay healthy and happy

Races

April 28th: Manotick 10km (40:16)
May 18th: Ottawa Early Bird Sprint Triathlon (DNF)
June 8th: Riverkeeper SuperSprint (2nd overall)
July 1st: Bushtukah Canada Day 5km (18:37)

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Cupcake Girl
Bruce Kidd
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Re: No taper racing

Postby Cupcake Girl » Thu May 10, 2012 1:35 pm

Thanks. It's good to my thought process wasn't totally way off.

If I get PBs this year, yeah, if not, who cares.

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eme
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Re: No taper racing

Postby eme » Thu May 10, 2012 2:15 pm

Good advice.

I use short races mixed in with my training leading up to my A race as well.

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La
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Re: No taper racing

Postby La » Thu May 10, 2012 8:35 pm

Cupcake Girl wrote:Thanks. It's good to my thought process wasn't totally way off.

If I get PBs this year, yeah, if not, who cares.

You can go into those other races in two ways: treat it as a training day, or "go for it" (untapered) and take what you get. You might surprise yourself!
"Maybe I will be my own inspiration." - UltraMonk (Laura)
"Everywhere is walking distance if you have enough time." - Steven Wright

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Wu wei
Bruce Kidd
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Re: No taper racing

Postby Wu wei » Thu May 10, 2012 9:43 pm

I always "freshen up" for B races.
Two days out: off or short/easy
One day out: no intensity. but might do up to 4 hours of training.

I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER treat a race as "go easy" or "training day". A race is a race... I do not want to train my mind to think it's ok to go easy when racing. That's a habit I don't want to start.
Besides... why pay money to go easy? I might as well do a training session for free.
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Epictetus


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