I’ve been following the Level 6 Half Iron training plan from my secret training book. Well, okay, it’s not really a secret! The Matt Fitzgerald plans are great, except for the tapering has too much stuff. I’ve been having trouble resisting the temptation to squeeze in that one last good hard solid workout. Or two. Or three. I can’t just ignore my written plan.
So, I looked back at my BT logs leading up to Pinehurst. I had such a great race that day, I wanted to see how I tapered. I had switched over to the Gale Bernhardt plan for the taper. Brilliant idea, lol! Gale knows how to do a taper: just enough stuff to keep me feeling fast, but not too much so my body will be well rested come race day! So, here’s my plan for the next two weeks:
Sat: brick 2:15 / 1:15 negative split each
Sun: bike 1:00 E1 -> zione 1
Mon: 1:00 Strength
Tues: 45 swim E(speed), run 30 E2 -> zone 2
Wed: bike 1:00 S5 -> keep cadence of 90rpm whole ride
Thu: swim 45 E2, run 45 E2
Fri: day off
Sat: Brick: swim 1:00 M & bike 1:00, run 30 neg split each
Sun: bike 1:00 E1
Total hours: 8:15
Mon: run 45 M1(20) -> Zone 2 w/ 20 min at LT
Tue: swim 45 E(speed)
Wed: bike 45 M1(15) -> 15 min at LT
Thu: run 30 S2 pickups
Fri: off
Sat: brick: 30 swim, 20 bike, 10 run.
Total hours: 3:45
Yes, I do think there is too much hard stuff in the taper part of his plans. I followed the level 7 oly plan for Pinehurst…This is what I did the last 10 days, which I got from Gale’s book…good luck!
Thurs: Swim 1:00 E Speed
Fri: Run 0:45 A7 (zone 2 run with 5×90 sec accels)
Sat: Brick 1:30 bike / :30 run (negative split each)
Sun: Bike 1:00 E2 (zone 2)
Mon: off
Tues: Swim 0:45 E Form (lots of drills)
Wed: Run 0:30 S1 (easy run wi 5×30 sec strides)
Thurs: 0:30 OWS or E(Speed)
Fri: brick: 0:20 S4/0:10 S2 (20-30 sec accels / strides)
Sat: Race!
So Carol- you are saying that Matt’s plan does not have enough taper- I am following level 3 oly for the Kerr lake event and trying to decide how to handle the last week- what do you think?
Thanks a lot and your blog is great!
Rebecca