 Feeling flat week before race?
cwhitmore wrote:
> Last year I competed in my first triathlon and was feeling flat the week
> before so I took the last week off. (worked out good for me)
> This year, I did twice the distance (olympic), and started feeling flat two
> weeks before so I did a few easy workouts two weeks from the event and then
> took the last week off. This year it didn't work, I felt exhausted before
> the race even started. Needless to say I had a long day and was disappointed
> in my times.
> Any suggestions?
> Carlton.
Maybe I can help.
Make sure that you are eating, sleeping, and hydrating enough and that
they are all good quality.
Sometimes eating something simple like a bowl of cereal and drinking a
sports drink a half hour before a workout will help me fight the fatigue
and eating a gel right before my workout while I change can really help.
Extra fruit and a potato a day can really help me as well.
Even a nap can really make a difference. On heavy work out weeks I can
require 10 hours of sleep to recover. I didn't know this at first and
tried to get by on 7-8 and really suffered in all aspects of my life.
If I have not had adequate rest or fuel to train with I can really
suffer and need extra long recovery weeks or more recovery runs in a
regular scheduled training week.
Taper, and incorporate recovery runs/rides (much lower heart rate allows
for healing and this seems to kick start my own lower periods when I
feel fatigued).
Incorporate periodization, for instance my schedule works well when I
work out 9 hours the first week 11 hours the second, 13 the third, and
up to 15 hours on the fourth week and then I have a recovery week where
I only do half hour runs and much fewer hours. After the recovery week I
would then re-start at 9 hours of training per week. Sometimes I may
need a recovery week sooner if the drills were different and harder than
I was expecting on my body (for instance I may need a few recovery runs
or a week of recovery at week 2).
Incorporating different types of drills for each 4 week rotation.
For instance below and above lactate threshold training, skill
improvement, long runs, short runs. I tend to work on 4 drills in
swimming and then change to a different set of 4 drills the next month.
This really helps with the boredom through out the month as well as each
week.
If these ideas don't help, maybe see your doctor or a nutritionist or
hire a coach.
Good luck. | 
