Eight weeks ago, I wrote about starting my Build Phase for Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga. That phase is part of a typical periodized training plan.  It consisted of two cycles of three weeks of full training, followed by a recovery week, otherwise known as down week.

Recovery periods are a critical part of the training process.  Building endurance through training is a process of stress and recovery.  I have periods of stress and recovery within my training weeks, but then I also have a full seven days of recovery.

To recover, I don’t I stop training.  It just means that the volume of work that I do, is reduced.  In these weeks, I typically train for 25-50% fewer hours, than the prior week.  You can see from today’s photograph, that this week I am planning to train for eight hours and twenty minutes.  Last week, I trained for fourteen and a half hours.

It is not just reduced volume.  What you cannot see in the photograph, is that the majority of my training hours this week, will be spent in the pool or on the bike. Swimming and cycling are much less stressful on the body than running.

The biggest issue that I typically have with these recovery weeks, is dealing with all the extra free time that I have.  I love that I have time for other things, but I cannot start anything big, because the following week I am back to training longer hours again.

My Peak Phase starts next week.  This is a pretty intense phase of training but it ends with me entering my taper for the race.  Tapering for a race is something I have waited for well over a year to do. I can’t wait.