During the taper period, it is important to rest and recover, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the only thing you do.  It is important to continue working out. This will help to keep you sharp ahead of your race.

I typically have a taper period of two weeks.  During the first of those two weeks, my volume of work reduces from the level during the final training block.  I typically reduce the weekly volume, to about two thirds of the peak weekly volume of the training block.

Specifically for this race, it means I will do about 9 hours of training this week.  In the early part of the week, my workouts will include some intensity. Towards the end of this week, the workouts will be generally easier efforts.

This is why today, I had a thirty minute, easy effort run and a one hour bike session with twelve, one minute efforts in Zone 4 power.  While this is nothing super hard, it is also not a simple rest and recover schedule either.

This approach works for me.  It may not work for everyone. What I do know is that doing very little or nothing ahead of the race, makes me sluggish and that is not good for racing.