Personal Trainer
Paul O'Brien
For those who are competing for more than just fun, achieving peak fitness for your event is the reason for training. To reach the peak of your fitness, the most important attribute you'll need is discipline. Why? Because achieving peak fitness means reducing your training in a structured way before your event. When people are training well, or are worried about their fitness levels, this can be a tough call to make. This reduction in training is called ‘tapering’.
The length of the taper before your event will depend upon your fitness levels. If you have a good base of aerobic endurance, strength and speed, you can begin your taper about 21 days from your event. If your fitness is not where it needs to be, a taper as few as ten days out will work for you. The other factor to take into account is the event itself. The longer the event, the further back your taper should be, again depending upon fitness levels.
If tapering for 21 days, you should reduce your training volume by 20 per cent each week up to the event. If it's a ten-day taper, cut volume by 50 per cent.
To reduce volume, focus on cutting back the length of your training sessions, keeping the frequency and intensity of sessions at the same level. For example your taper may go from training five days weekly for 60 minutes at 75 per cent of heart rate max to training five days weekly for 45 minutes at 75 per cent of heart rate max.
Ensure you keep one high-intensity workout in your schedule, ensuring that the other sessions are less intense, perhaps focusing on areas of weakness such as swim skills for triathlon.
Tapering in this way will help your preparation and your race times. A little discipline can lead to large gains.
Next week Fighting fatigue – fitness for endurance events
Paul O’Brien is a certified personal trainer with the American Council on Exercise and a qualified life coach. He runs his own business in Westport and is the creator of Bootcamp West, an exciting and challenging exercise programme in Westport. For details of upcoming classes, visit www.bootcampwest.com or e-mail paul@bootcampwest.com or telephone 086 1674515.
