TAPER

This is the best part of the training… TAPER we as runners, bikers, and swimmers never learn to rest, and it’s very important. I have been reading a lot and the way our muscles recover from extreme exercises is to allow them to properly rest/recover. It has been a long way to be in this moment now, 10 days away from my first Ironman, and I have to tell you that tapering has been a great part of my training. It doesn’t mean that you don’t exercise more, it means that instead of doing 2-3hrs of daily training and 10-12hrs of weekend training, you allow your body to do 1hr-2hrs of weekday training and perhaps 7hr-10hrs of weekend training. The closer the event November 4th, the less you do. But it is always less than the peek weeks of training. By the way, I recover part of my social life, I’m able to stay a little late since I don’t have to wake up at 5-5:30AM anymore.

Other important par here is nutrition, I have been eating like crazy and trying to keep my weight, which has been hard. I’m still loosing pounds and I shouldn’t be, but I think is just a matter of being nervous. I had to practice a full day of no solid food, since that is what is really going to happen in the Ironman. You don’t eat steak, chicken, rice salad, etc. instead I drink high protein/carbohydrate drinks, drink/swallow power gels, and nothing more nothing less. Of course, Gatorade and water for electrolytes and hydration. In case you feel that you are loosing a lot of salt, I might have to have a pill of salt (sodium), but never happen during my training, hopefully won’t need it.

This past weekend, I also tried cross training since I was getting tired of biking, swimming (always tired of it) and running long sessions. I went kayaking foe 6 miles, like 3hrs. It was great and I change a little the monotony of my weekend trainings. I also went to an advance yoga class that almost killed me, I was doing some posses that never did before and they were hard.

My recommendation for all of you that are interested in doing an Ironman, is that of TAPER when needed, it is better to make it to the race than been out due to overtraining, which always end up in one or more injuries.