Triathlon: Timing your peak

By Lance Watson

In the beginning, there was only one type of triathlete; he or she just went out and swam, biked, and ran. The distance was inconsequential; they just raced as hard as they could. These were the pioneers of our sport, however, as time passed and more people began to race, scientific training principles began filtering into triathlon. One of these principles was that of tapering.

Tapering is the term used to describe the process of bringing the body to a state where peak performance can occur. At its most basic level, tapering is the cutting back of volume, frequency, or duration, while maintaining a speed component in workouts. This allows the body to fully recover and rebuild itself leading into the most important races of the season. The peaking process includes workouts that tie together the development of your aerobic energy system with the exact demands of racing. These races will be combined with recovery periods and workouts that target race or event specific demands. Tapering is the time for you to pull together all of the aspects that will bring you to peak athletic performance.

It is necessary to realize that you can only have a peak performance a couple times a season, depending on when you need to peak. That is not to say that you cannot race well and achieve personal bests when not tapered, but a true peak performance will usually only come after a taper. This holds true for both long course and short course events. If you do both it is possible to get a peak performance at each distance, but only if the events are spaced well apart.

Tapering is only to be used when preparing for the most important race of the season, and it should only occur after maximum conditioning has been achieved. The key to successful peaking begins in the off-season when you draw up your training plan and race schedule for the year. Use your race schedule to rate all you races in order of importance so that you will be able to focus on the ones that are most important to you. From there count back two weeks and label that day as the beginning of your taper. It does not matter if this event is an Ironman or a short course race; most people generally need around 10-12 days for their body to respond to a taper.

Since a peak performance is based upon the body recovering from a training induced deficit, it is important that you are training consistently and that you have enough time between peaks to recover and then re-induce a deficit. A taper is really just your body recovering to 110%, while tuning up your race readiness. This is why it is important to space the important races. If you were to race Hawaii and then another short course race 4 weeks later, your body may have recovered, but you will not have had time for any higher intensity training. You may race well, but it will not be to the same level as what is possible with better planning.

When planning your races, make sure that there is sufficient time between them to recover and re-induce a deficit. Resting for all your races may help you race better at each one of them, but it will not produce a peak performance. If your "A" race is in late August, then your taper begins in early August, not early summer. Train through the early races. These races are of value as they will help prepare you mentally, physically, and technically for your important race, but use them as training days rather than racing days. If there is an early race that is a "B" race, then you can use what we call a "mini-taper" - that is a taper of a couple of days rather than a couple of weeks. If you were racing on Saturday, you would back off your volume on a Wednesday and taper into the weekend, and then resume regular training on the Monday after the race. This will allow you to recover a little more for the race, but won't bring your body into perfect recovery.

When looking for a peak performance in both long course and short course in one season, it is important to choose the peak races carefully. You should not try to have a short course and long course peak too close together, and you should avoid planning any important short course event soon after the Ironman. The recovery time from an Ironman distance race can last up to 3 months even for the top elites, and while some people like Lori Bowden can consistently pull off amazing Ironman races within a month of each other, most other athletes will need to use the time after an Ironman to heal their body and refocus their mind.

Since the training involved in short course and long course racing is quite different, you should try to sort your season into two halves, focusing on distance at a time. Ideally, you would have an early long course race, followed by an important short course race a three to six months later. By training for the long course race, you are developing an incredibly strong base from which to build on during your short course training. Building speed work upon your long course foundation will allow you to use this strength to your advantage in getting ready for your short course peak.

Tapering your training to achieve a peak performance is as much an art as it is a science. There are as many perfect tapers as there are triathletes, and this individuality is important. While there are obvious guidelines to a taper, only time and experimentation will reveal what your perfect taper looks like.

Remember, there is a high chance that the first time you try this, it will not work perfectly, but document what you did so you can go back and make changes for the next time. Nobody is perfect the first time, so trust and learn.

CTS Multisport Head Coach Lance Watson is the personal coach of triathlon stars Simon Whitfield, Lisa Bentley, Greg Bennett, and Laura Reback, to name a few. He can be reached at lwatson@trainright.com; or www.trainright.com.