Arrived safe and sound in Kelowna yesterday. The drive here was much more enjoyable than the one to Cranbrook if only because it was way shorter. It is however a fair bit hotter here than in Vancouver (35 degrees today, tomorrow and race day) so we’ve been doing our best to get acclimatized. The “easy” 30 minute run in the afternoon heat yesterday was a start but was also a bit of an eye opener as to how tough it might be come Sunday.
Other than that, an easy bike ride this morning to check out the course and now just sitting on the porch outside our room, enjoying being in taper mode.
Up until this race, I had generally taken a fairly relaxed approach to tapering. For those not in the know, tapering is basically resting your body in the days (or weeks) leading up to a race. It gives your body a chance to fully recover from all of the training and “damage” you have done over the past months and complete all of the adaptations to that training that make you faster.
The tricky part is that it tends to be, well, tricky. Don’t take enough time to rest and you wont be on top of your game. Take too much time and you risk losing some of the fitness you have built up and feeling flat due to a lack of intensity. It really is a fine line that is unique to every athlete. Some respond well to working hard right up until race today. Others need time completely off. So it’s a learning experience to figure out what works for me.
In the past, I took it very easy in the week leading up to a race (trying to err on the safe side) but this time around I spent a little more time doing race intensity workouts right up until Wednesday (including a crit race on Tuesday). I’m hoping that the extra bit of intensity will keep me from feeling flat (like a did a little going into Worlds) on Sunday.
Just to illustrate the importance of tapering (and because I have yet to mention the Olympics or Phelps in this post), a comment from the very intelligent boys at Science of Sport about Phelps and his coach that I cannot agree more with…
Speedo LZR racers aside, two things that Phelps and his coach have clearly nailed are his training and tapering, for there is no doubt that he is on top form right now. To arrive at a competition and win is one thing, but to set records in doing so is a clear indication that he optimized his training and got his taper just right. To be sure, he and his coach have had much experience with this over the years, but to get it right in such a big way is no small feat and cannot be overlooked!
Well, back to “tapering”. Although I’m not sure the candies Martina just brought back from Save-On for me are going to help any.
