Tapering for The 40+ Group - More Rest?
Week 18 IMCDA on Adv plan. 2.5 weeks to go and based on volume the taper has begun (sort of). This will be my 4th IM and getting the taper thing right is still a challenge for me. I'm nearly 41 and something I have wondered is if I should be cutting workouts short, resting more, etc. while tapering.
I'm interested in knowing what others do in terms of cutting back. I've read Tapering with Intent on the wiki - great read. But this question is more specific to the age of the athlete. I've knocked over every workout in the plan since Day 1. Not many screw ups. Seems like taking more rest would be a smart move.
Thoughts?
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Comments
Back in the day we did a 2wk taper, ie, your last RR was two weeks out from the race. We've now moved to a 3wk taper, final RR is 3wks out. You don't need more than a 3wk taper and you should not feel rested, at all, right now. I recommend you wait to see how you feel on race week.
I will forge ahead. On Thurs/Fri of Week 19 I have to travel for business and there will be no SBR options at all. Just not in the cards. So I'm going to get two bonus days off.
Damn! Paul's throwing down on me! Looks like I'm going to have to try for a course PR at IM CDA course in three weeks.
I agree; no reason to worry about age affecting taper @ 41. Maybe by 61?
@ Al - Kind of unrelated but I really want to hear about your IM marathon PR that you got at 60. I'd like to know where, how, etc. Tell me (or if you have a post that tells the story) when you can.
Al
I thought CDA was just to come back and finish - and now you're talking course record! You're a monster!
Jim
Small data set, but I've been following the EN plans from my mid-thirties to my current age of 41, and don't notice any difference in the fatigue I'm carrying to taper-time. OS session recovery, yes. IM taper, not so much.
addendum: I'm actually following the two-week taper model from a few years ago. Seems to be what works best for me.
@ Dave - As you know, training times don't lie. I think my current swim, bike, and run training efforts show I can expect to do 11:42-44 given good weather on the run. My CR there is 11:36. My one and only goal for CDA is still as shown below in my sig line - see what my current level of fitness allows. My comment was meant as a tongue in cheek response to Paul's smack talk. We'll se what my fitness and the day allows. I'm saving my "all-in: game face for November in Tempe, when I think my swim will be stronger and my endurance will be fully recovered.
@ Jim - Here's the report I wrote for that race. But you may want to know more about the road to that day, than what I did during the race. First thing to know, is I never ran a step until age 50, so what I'm really talking about is an "old man" PR, post age 50. Who knows what my time would have been at age 35?
Without all the details and detours along the way, here's the skeleton outline of my progression. 15 IM *finishes* from 2000-2010. # 1, I walked the last 8 miles and ran 5:20 or so after a 5:45 bike. This was repeated in IMs 3&4. IM #2, I made two changes, riding the bike 20 minutes slower and using racing flats instead of clunky training shoes, and went 4:22. Why I didn't learn anything from that, I don't know. IM finish # 6 in 2005 @ CDA, I read an early online race strategy essay from Rich which "clicked" for me, and I was able to go 4:29 on a warmish day. The light bulb finally went off, and at my next race, in 95F heat at IM MOO 05, I ran the whole way in 4:45ish, with a 9 minute negative split. The next year in Kona I was finally back in the racing flats, and ran 4:22 in the heat there. The next year, 07, @ CDA, 6 months after foot surgery, I was down to 4:15, and my next 5 were 4:06, 4:05, 4:09, 4:03, 4:15, with the differences due to temperature of the day more than anything else.
During that whole time, my 5K times were consistent at 20:0x - so I was neither getting faster nor slower as a runner. I ran an average of 22 miles a week during the year, never more than 30-35 miles a week max. My long runs got shorter and fewer. What changed were these things: lighter, lower heeled shoes; foot surgery to correct its shape (bunion); adopting EN style runs, with more emphasis on speed in training runs (my average pace per run over the year in training dropped by 30 seconds); and most important, deeply understanding exactly how to pace an Ironman. I routinely was passing men in my AG during the marathon who were "faster" runners than me, based on their 5/10/21/42K tstand alone times.
Still, being better @ age 60 than @ age 55 shows it's never too late to improve on physicial performance, given proper training and racing, even if "improvement " means slowing down less than expected as one gets older (which is where I am now, I think.)
@Al - Love your story, thanks for sharing. I spotted something that resonates with me...you said you dropped an average of 30 seconds per mile in training runs. I've done 3 IMs and since starting the EN IM plan my average pace per mile in my Long Runs is 30-40 seconds less than it was in my previous IM training. I'm hoping that this translates into some success on race day. My previous IM marathons were IMCDA 4:44, IMMOO 4:42 and IMSG 4:22. Each IM marathon has been less walking and more running. For me, in less than 2.5 weeks I am doing a warm-up swim and bike ride to the start of a marathon - that's where my head is.
@ Jim - My last 3 IM Marathons were 4:07 (IMFL); 4:04 (IMCDA) and 3:57 (IMAZ). I don't believe I've cracked the code yet, but will bust my nads at Regensburg trying for 3:50. I'm trying several new things for this race...we'll see how it works out.
My experiences are that the taper(s) are about right ( I'm 51 yo). Having said that, I almost every time hit a brick wall around 4-5 weeks out from race and have to stand down for 1-2 days, completely. From there in, it all works. I did 4 HIM's last year on 2 week tapers and it worked great. I'm training for IMC right now ( 4th IM) and will determine later in training cycle how to approach taper for longer effort, but I suspect it will be the 3 week option, just to stick to plan.
Good luck.
Bill
I'm tempted to try the 2-week taper for logistical reasons. ChesapeakeMan is two weeks before Kona, and is likely to have hot/windy conditions. There is an aqua-velo division. Would I be crazy to do that for my last RR and do a 6 mile run after I get off the bike? Or just do it solo three weeks before? I'm 37.
Question.. It says about the RR used to be two weeks out, and then switched to 3. So, that being said, would you touch on why a RR/112 ride 13 days from IMLOU? Just curious.
kc
@Kristan, Yes, the Intermediate IM plan has a RR at week 18, two weeks out. I believe the plans last year had it 3 weeks out with the option to move it closer to your race if you wanted to. The 3 weeks out option was for the, um, older folks.
Although the RR day is taxing for sure both mentally and physically, its also really the taper of the long run which has a huge impact on overall Leg Fatigue for me. Week 18 has a long run of 105 minutes which is coming down from two weeks of 150 minute long runs.
Kristan,
The final RR used to be 2wks out...then 3...then we moved it back to 2wks. However, we've made lots and lots of changes to all of the "stuff" within that 2-3wk period to make it all fit. The short answer is that while it can sound scary, that final rehearsal is about the easiest ride you'll see from us all year and 2wks is more then enough time to recover from it. You'll be fine.
Thank you coach!
Nate,
Thank you for the insight.. I appreciate it!
kc