I was asked twice this week how I taper athletes for their
A-priority races, once by an athlete and also by a coach. I told them that I
would write about it in my blog, but later realized I had already done so several
times. So rather than do it all over again I’ll just provide the links to four posts on the topic. I’ll also summarize
each so you can pick out the one that best matches your interests, should you
want to read about it (click on the title to go to the post).
In this post from 2009 you will find an explanation of the
three elements of race preparedness – fitness, fatigue and form. This is
essential to understanding what’s happening when you peak properly. It goes on
to describe the basics of the peaking process through the interplay of
intensity and rest/recovery with an emphasis on the latter.
This post is also from 2009 and is a follow up to the one
above providing graphic illustrations of how I taper and peak athletes. This
will make much more sense if you use a power meter (bike) or speed-distance
device (run) along with the Performance Management Chart (PMC) at TrainingPeaks or WKO+
software.
The two charts show the actual peaking design for a road cyclist and an Ironman
triathlete.
Here you will find a discussion of how I was preparing a
road cyclist for his A race. The PMC for the athlete is also provided along
with more subtle nuances of the indicators of race readiness.
Tri vs. Roadie
Peaking Power Distribution
As the title implies, this very short piece uses two of the
athletes I coached in 2010 – a 70.3 triathlete and a road cyclist – to compare
graphically how their bike power was distributed by training zones as they went
through their final preparations for their A races.
If you search for “peaking” on the home page of my blog you’ll find much more detail on peaking including topics such as
projecting race readiness, strong and weak form, and peak performance
predictors.
