spokes

Believe it or not, it's about taper time 'round here. As much as I love to see the word taper, at this early time of the year I keep thinking.... taper from what???? My volume hasn't been incessantly high, I am feeling very good. Heading into a race possibly a bit under trained than over trained and injured leaves me feeling already satisfied.

Taper can be a double edged sword. Especially if you are tapering for an Ironman. In the past several years we have graduated from a 3 week drop own X % by each week taper to a 10 day rest it up taper. Everyone is different in terms of tapering, and this is where a coach can come in extremely handy.

We know how fitness is built. It's actually very simple. We gradually become stronger through the process of progressive overload. We soak all of that training up through optimal recovery. That enables our muscles to repair and build themselves stronger.

Then there is taper. The week to 10 days before a distance event where we walk the line of doing too much, too little and freaking out.

We want the muscles to keep firing yet we wane ample time to recover. So you drop a bit from your personal volume over that period of 7-10 days. You keep the intensity in there ( not as long, while keeping the easy days easy and the hard days hard), and the duration shortens. You practice the best possible nutrition that you can in the hopes of "topping off" your glycogen stores.

And then you really, truly prepare your mind.

Working with a lot of athletes gives me the wonderful opportunity to learn how athletic minds tick. I know how to get Sarah ready for race day. I know how to crack Dennis. And ultimately I do know how to crack myself.

I have a small journal that I use, and truthfully I have only used it for yoga since July. I needed to step back a bit because of the events that surrounded July in itself. I had to not get into myself in order to heal. For me stepping back is what allows the scars to heal over. I have to think less and then move more.

So I have brought out my little journal of notes and quotes and all things positive to feed my soul with. The words that ignite the feelings that cause me to want to fly when that gun goes off.

Proper nutrition is the other essential element of the taper. As volume drops nutrition becomes even more and more paramount. Calories need to be adjusted. Supreme quality needs to be ingested. Urine needs to be clear.

The number one sabotage to an athlete's race day is their failure to follow the taper plan. This means the workouts + sleep + nutrition / hydration + the mental game. Think of these as spokes in your wheel. Each of these spokes create your day. As we step to the starting line all of us have a 90% chance of a personal best day.

90% if we are trained and rested and ready to go. The other 10% are the things you can't control: weather, illness, flat tires....... circumstances of the race. If you are racing and you fall into that 10%, which seems to be where I have been existing, you have to make lemonade out of the lemons and make the best of what you can.

But part of that 90% chance is assuming that you have done the homework. The months of training and preparation. Taking the taper one step at a time and making sure all of the spokes in the wheel of you are strong and screwed in tight. One weak spoke and you run the chance of crashing.

As taper falls upon me I have created the plan for all of the spokes in my wheel. The physical, the emotional, the spiritual, the rest, the nutrition, the homework I need to do for the big day.

So what's your taper plan, if you look at the spokes in your wheel, where are you weak? Emotional? Nutritional? Now is the time to strengthen them up.

Because we know all too well that we are only as strong as our weakest link.