IamSpartacus wrote:
Lately been having issues with tapering for races. Includes 70.3 and even sprints. For the 70.3 in particular, an easy 7 days with efforts sprinkled in leave me feeling flat race day. However I have noticed the week after, when I ramp training back up, inconsequential local club races I become a beast in? Even sprint tri’s, it’s as if I reduce intensity and volume a bit, I often have an empty tank at the start line - like in rest mode.
For reference I’m only doing 12-13 hour weeks at most, and a sprint tri taper getting to the race with around 9 hours down u would think be fine but often left me floundering for my legs…
Which begs the question
Anyone taper earlier in their lead up and rebuild as such for race day? Or have an easier / recover type week say the week prior to a race and then race week brings back the spice so ur sharp? I swear I race better this way ?
Your dilemma reminds me of a skit on the old Hee Haw show, when one of the characters would complain to a doctor, 'it hurts when I do this', to which the doc would reply, 'don't do that', while whacking him with a rubber chicken.
The solution to your problem is simple, take what you've done before, adjust the schedule so that your race date falls at the end of what would've been a week later. Basically, you're taking a rest week 2 weeks out, then doing a bit of a build for the week immediately preceding the race.