Taper Trauma

Right now, approximately 7500 American Birkebeiner skiers are midway through their race week taper.  Make no mistake - they are not happy about it. 
Tapering never lives up to expectations.  The athlete has trained hard for weeks - dreaming all along of what it will be like to rest a little.  One would think that it would feel great.  The reality is that it never feels good. 
Typical taper feelings include heavy legs, deep sluggishness, grouchy demeanor and apprehension about the upcoming race.  Not fun. 
Your body's rhythms have been completely disrupted.  And while you are feeling kind of punky, you don't have any tough workouts to help prove to yourself that you still have fitness for your race.  This is why so many people make the mistake of pushing too hard in the days right before their "A" race.
But have faith in the taper!  It does work extremely well when done right.  And "right" means a different scenario for each athlete.  If done wrong, race day will be disappointing.
As a coach, I monitor my athlete's fatigue level, personality, race experience, race goals and overall fitness to prescribe their best-odds taper routine.  It is an art with a lot of science to back it up.  More on the specifics of how to taper well in a later post. 
Right now, I have to get some more rest!

Without rest, you will not build fitness

Training + Rest = Fitness (Form)

Most endurance athletes are very good at the training portion of this equation.  But without carefully planned rest days, weeks and months, an athlete's fitness will plateau (best case scenario) or plummet (when over-trained). 

Many endurance athletes don't rest enough.  It can be intoxicating to keep training longer/faster, etc.  And for a while, it can work.  But eventually, it will fail.  Sometimes the athlete simply never again improves - a subtle failure that they may not even recognize.  Most times, it will result in repeated illnesses or injuries.  Sometimes, the athlete can reach a state of over-training - a little understood scrambling of their body's endocrine and energy systems that can take months or years to recover from.

As we age, the need for rest becomes more obvious.  But, the younger athletes would be ahead of the curve to recognize that they need rest as well.

Without rest, you will not attain your potential.

Before we had kids, my husband and I would train until we dropped each weekend morning.  Then, we would typically eat a huge lunch and hang out sleepily on the couch for a few hours until we had grabbed back some strength.  That stopped abruptly more than 10 years ago with the birth of my daughter.  There went most of our naturally built in recovery hours each week.  We had to learn to listen to our exhausted parental bodies and skip workouts when necessary.  Without those couch hours each week, we couldn't train until we dropped. 

I figure that in about 10 more years, we'll get back our couch and more training energy.  We may be 20 years older then, but I bet we'll find some revival of our old energy when we're not chasing kids 24/7.  (We'll also miss them terribly, I'm sure.  These years with kids are completely wonderful!)

Yesterday, I felt exhausted from 3 tough weeks of training.  I managed to sit down and watch the Olympics for several hours - a minor miracle.  Boy, did I feel good today!

Pieces of the Puzzle

I regretably missed USAT's Art and Science of Coaching Symposium last weekend.  Coaching is clearly both an art and a science, and I find that I thrive on constant updates from other coaches.  I was looking at the symposium highlights and thought I'd bring a few to you. 
The following highlights are from one of the best, Mark Allen.

ESSENTIALS OF A GREAT IRONMAN TRAINING PROGRAM

Mark Allen


• The goal of training for an Ironman is to make it seem like it is just another day.


• Physical training has to incorporate base, speed and taper, as well as a sensible strength training program.


• Nutritional support on race day is the toughest to get right because research is not conducted under the stress of a race.


• Mental training is undervalued but exceptionally effective if practiced with the same regularity of the physical training.

I couldn't agree more.  With proper training and taper, race day will seem like just another day of training.  Actually, with a solid taper, you will feel "Race Magic" - much stronger, smoother and faster on race day than you ever felt in training. 

Ironman nutrition?  The biggest unknown for any athlete toeing the starting line.  No matter how well you have studied, planned and practiced your race nutrition, you will usually experience some difficulties on race day (hopefully minor and manageable.)  The key here may be to train yourself to race on less fuel - a big topic for another post in the future.

And mental training?  One of my favorite topics.  If you train with me, you will do your mental homework before your "A" race.  There is no skipping that assignment.  To quote excellent coach and athlete Jen Harrison, "Yes! I always say - at the start line at major races EVERYONE is fit and in shape. It comes down to 90% mental and 10% physical. The head always wins!" 

Success on race day is more than just basic bike speed, run pace or swim technique.  It is a complex puzzle of so many different details.  I love puzzles.

Thoughts on "Cross" Training

If I were eleven weeks out from a summer/fall Ironman, I'd be doing long rides and bricks every week.  100+ milers with transition runs or hard 2 hour bikes followed by Ironman paced long runs. 
I've done none of that for Ironman St. George (so far). 
Am I worried?  Not at all - this was all part of my plan, and I've been in this position before.   
Winter in Illinois is not the time for six hour rides.  And it doesn't work too well to bike hard indoors, then go out into 20 degree, windy conditions for a long run - I just get too cold. 
I've done exactly two 3-hour indoor trainer rides (plus my two 60 minute interval rides each week).  Instead of long, insane indoor trainer hours, I'm focusing on threshold development on my short rides.  I am doing long runs - but on their own right now so that I can start them well-fueled and ready to take on the weather.
And, I have a secret weapon that is proven.  Cross country skiing.  Each week since Christmas, I've done a 3-4 hour HILLY cross country ski.  I am a good skier - good enough that I cover about 50km in these skis.  My heart rate averages 165 for these skis - with natural intervals of near-max heart rates on the hills.  I've been skiing since 1989 and I know that these skis will do more for my fitness than anything else I can do all year.  Even summer long rides and bricks don't make me as fit as these long, strong skis.
Skiing works my legs in all three planes (unlike cycling and running).  It builds stronger hip, knee and ankle stabilizer muscles - which seem to have an immediate impact on my running speed and health.  Hill climbs translate directly into cycling strength.  Poling requires a strong ab crunch with every other stride.  Amazing core work.  Aerobically, there is nothing that gets my heart rate higher for such a long time without any impact.  My husband and I come out of ski season ready to race in any sport with a few tune-up workouts.
In MN and WI, most triathletes/runners/cyclists ski all winter.  You won't find them in their garage on a bike for long periods of time. 
And the last benefit?  It is incredibly fun (once you have decent equipment, a few lessons and good trails). 
As we say in the upper midwest..."Ski ya later."