Racing Resources for Triathletes
Multisport racing resources: tapering, nutrition, how to prep for a big race, how to enjoy the big day!
GordoWorld ★★★★★
This is the online home of Gordo Byrn. For those who don't know Gordo, he trained himself into the pro tri world and along the way started up the Tri Forum, Epic Camps and coaching.
When Gordo first started on the web, he wrote a series of articles that are archive in his gtips section, and there are some great tips in there on training and racing.
Ironman Hawaii Taper - By Roch Frey ★★★★
Roch Frey offer some Hawaii Ironman specific tapering techniques, where this late season race requires a little bit of a different taper from early season events.
Not only is the timing at the end of the season, but Hawaii offers a few other unique obstacles that this article tried to cover.
Five Perfect Weeks to Kona:The Art of Tapering - IRONMAN.com ★★★★
Mark Allen sets the taper straight in this article:
This is the period of your season leading up to a key race when you cut back your overall training volume and allow your body to absorb all of the hard work you did during your base building and speed phases. Doing the right kind of taper is an art unto itself.
Mark offers some advice on taper length by sport before getting into what to expect during an Ironman taper and what to do on the days leading up to the big day. I wish I had read this before my first IM!
Fueling during the race ★★★★
A classic piece written by Dan Empfield in 2000, it has heaps of basic information for race fuelling and eating while training.
Reading through this now, I can spot at least 1 issue that affected my 2001 Ironman Canada bike leg and another mis-conception that I had
Iron How-To - Crucible Fitness ★★★★
Rich Strauss from Crucible Fitness writes up Iron How-To, which presents a comprehensive plan for race week and race day
.
Rich presents some great advice here, a lot of it things that some friends who had many ironman races under their belts helped me with during my first Ironman. Starting with some basic principles, he walks thru Race Week Focuses, Race Day Nutrition, Pacing, and Mental/Emotional State, the Night Before the Night Before, the Night Before and Race day. Invaluable stuff for those of us with less experience!
Taper Time ★★★
This article offers up much of the same advice as many others, but nails it on the head when it states that What [tapering] means to each person seems a little different, and there is certainly no shortage of ideas related to how you should execute your taper
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10 Ironman Taper Tips by Gary Bredehoft ★★★
A few tips here with a different take, touching on the mental aspect of a taper, encouraging you to look over your training log when you feel that maybe you haven't done enough work, and also to visualize a successful race day.
12 tips for Ironman tapering by Lisa Bentley ★★★
I really blew my taper into my first Ironman for various reasons. Here, Lisa Bentley offers up twelve taper tips that she and her coach Lance Watson have refined for her over the years.
I would say that we have fine-tuned and perfected the taper portion of my training cycle. Magically, during every taper, the fatigue that builds up during the Ironman build phase vanishes.
Ironman Training - Triathlon Tapering ★★
Research has proven time and again, that for a taper to be effective, volume should be gradually reduced whilst keeping the intensity at pre-taper levels.
This article offer some basic ideas about tapering and discusses both short and long distance tris. It includes the following statement which is a common theme in many articles on tapering: During a taper, you may feel sluggish/lethargic etc, but take note: THIS IS NORMAL.
