Here I am in week 8 of 20 of Ironman training, and I've already planned out my taper! Now there's confidence that I will get through this whole darn thing again. Anyway, the beauty of training with power is that there is no more guess work about how hard you're training, and how well you're recovering--or not. Here's an example from my recent half Ironman (HIM) training cycle, and why I'm going to monkey around a bit with the Endurance Nation (EN) taper plan.
Here's my Cycling Peaks Performance Management chart through the HIM taper. The yellow line is "training stress balance" (TSB), and the pink line shows "acute training load (ATL). You can actually see the training "hole" you dig as you build the load. The bigger the "hole" between the yellow and pink lines, the bigger the training load you've executed. To taper, in simple terms, you want the yellow line to be above 0, and the pink line below 0 to be rested and ready to race. I will say that with the EN two week taper time frame, I was NOT ready to go on the day of the race--7/5. That was following the training plan plan exactly as written.
As you can see, a week out the yellow line was -18, and pooped the whole week. The day of the race I was at +8.4, still tired and not ready. It took me another another couple of days to get to +10, and begin to feel the inklings of being race hungry. By then I was getting ready to roll.
After experiencing the rhythm of EN race training, including the taper, I see how it all fits together. Training by pace and power and analyzing the data corroborates what I'm feeling, and allows me to replicate the load and the taper for future races. I'm quite sure I will likely do my IMFL "race rehearsal" long rides and runs a week earlier than indicated in the EN plan. I've futzed with the schedule back to front! I'm quite sure I will need 3-5 more easy days before FL than I would get if I followed the plan to the letter. Like EN Coach Patrick says, "don't run the schedule into your own personal brick wall!"
I love this PMC. It's like a crystal ball. Jump on the power bandwagon if you can. It changes everything for the better!
