I usually would not taper much for Duathlons, they are really just a way to stay focused during winter. However with the large amount of riding and running I'll be doing for Ironman and the Alpine Classic, I'll lose some of my speed. So I decided to make the most of the Duathlon Sprint races while I had the chance. This means tapering off the training load before each event to make sure I feel fresh.
With only 2 weeks between the Kew and Richmond Duathlons, it meant I only had one week of training before tapering for Richmond. My usual training blocks are 3 weeks followed by a 1 week recovery. Therefore I decided to make this week harder than usual.
The Monday after the Kew Duathlon I did an easy 40km ride and a slow 5km run to try and loosen up the legs. This was then finished off with a relatively easy 1.8km swim session. This worked well and on Tuesday I felt good during my long run of 17km. Elaine and I would usually do our long run on Thursdays, but we switched our schedule due to Elaine's work commitments.
On Wednesday I did another easy 5km recovery run followed by a tough 3km swim session. I don't know if it was the brutally hard Butterfly set, tiredness from the 17km run, residual fatigue from the Duathlon or a combination of all, but I really struggled in the second half of the swim and still felt very fatigued on Thursday.
The Thursday run session was supposed to be a Moneghetti Fartlek session (very hard). But it quickly became evident during the warmup that it simply was not going to happen. I decided to try a kilometre interval at medium intensity to see how I went, but I was nearly 1 min slower than I should have been. So I abandoned the thought of any intensity and changed the session into an easy 8km run. Ironically I was feeling better towards the end of the run, and my speed in the last kilometre was the same as my earlier interval attempt.
On Friday, I scrapped the planned ride and run sessions and had a day of rest before a short but tough Brick session with the club on Saturday morning. The rest had obviously been good for me, because I felt strong and fast in the Brick session. And I still felt good for the club long ride (85km) on the Sunday that included another ride up the front of Arthurs Seat. This time I did the climb in 11m48s compared to 13m07s a month ago. Congratulations must go to Martine who climbed the front of Arthurs Seat for the first time and Elaine who climbed the back (White Hill Rd) for the first time in 3 years.
Even though I skipped several sessions, at 11.5 hours (and 237 Slowtwitch Points) it was still the biggest training week of the season so far. Hopefully my body will slowly adjust to the load and be able to handle the planned 19 hour weeks (398 pts) in the lead up to Ironman.
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