Training and Tapering

Now this is an interesting concept. How do you stay sharp, avoid injury, get rested, and stay at the peak of your ability for a competition. The answer is … I don’t have the answer. If I did, I would have millions of dollars coming in from all of the terrible runners out there who are convinced if they taper properly they will turn their 28 minute 5k into a 27 minute 5k. And good for them.

But I believe the truth is that there still is not a great deal known about tapering and rarely is it scientifically investigated. Complicating this is the fact that we deal with different sports and events which have different demands on the body. How marathoners taper is different than power lifters, is different than football players, is different crossfitters. It is left to a great deal of individual preference, superstition, placebos (which is not to say those are not important).

Ben Johnson (a fast man whether he juiced or not … he did), thought heavy bench press was a perfect workout before a 100m race. Ummmm, ok. Marathoners will run 400m repeats in the weeks out. They could tell you why, but it wouldn’t make any more sense than the marathoner that only runs at race pace or does light jogging in the week before.

With all the conflicting advice, I will throw in my own. However, I will be so basic that hopefully the tenets I lay out will be a floor of the things all people should and shouldn’t do. These are the basics. Try to not violate them and you should be ok. Here my thoughts on what to do in preparation for the regional qualifiers.

(As an aside, I am treading a fine line here because I am basically saying overthinking this will kill you and then I am thinking enough about it to write a blog post. I’ll try to tread carefully).

First, do no harm. If you injure yourself two weeks out, that sucks. And it was probably unnecessary. Why? See point two.

Second, it is highly unlikely you will significantly improve your fitness in two weeks if you have been steadily training for any amount of time. In other words, don’t trick yourself into thinking if you work extra hard in the next two weeks it will greatly change your fitness level and put you at your peak. It takes many weeks for adaptations to occur in the body usually, especially if you are a regular trainer. The progress you made was in the last year, not the last week.

Third, don’t wear yourself out. I’m not talking injury, I’m talking that feeling where you’re on your ass and can barely move because you are so fatigued. Now is not the time to get a mild Rhabdo case. It will leave you drained for the competition, suseptable to injury, suseptable to sickness, and generally sap your energy.

Fourth, don’t sit on your ass. Taking two weeks off, though preferable to getting hurt or sick, will leave you rusty, achy (one great irony of taking time off is that you notice aches and are convinced something is wrong … this is largely paranoia), and sluggish. If you perform complicated moves in competition, those can get sloppy.

You’ve noticed a lot of DON’Ts so far in this post. I’m glad that is not lost on you. It is much easier to do something stupid than find the magic and greatly improve your performance. So what should you do?

Do rest more than you usually do. Not sure how much as it depends on you. But your level of rest should be higher than when you are usually training.

Do continue to practice important movements. Stay sharp by practicing your snatch, for example, without going super heavy or doing a stupid number of reps.

Do eat a little better than usual (or a lot if you don’t eat well), but do not make significant changes to your diet that have unknown effects. Now is not the time to start taking new vitamins, experimenting with creatine, exploring the wonders of Indian food (unless you eat that all the time now). Eat as you usually do … only better.

Do sleep. Sleeping the night before is not only insufficient, it is improbable. You will have enough nervous energy you will sleep like crap. Accept it. Luckily, one bad night of sleep won’t kill you if you have been sleeping well for two weeks.

Similarly, do hydrate. Drinking a bunch of water the day of/day before will do you little good. Hydration happens in the weeks before.

How am I implementing my own advice?

I have been a little achy lately so I will take extra rest, preferring to feel healed than injured. I must remain rational and recognize that even cutting my training volume in half for two weeks will have little effect on fitness, but it may help me feel better. This is on top of the two extra days of rest programmed, the planned easy days, and total rest the day before game day.

My workout schedule for the next two weeks should have no workouts over 10 minutes, some heaviness, but no 1-5 rep maxes, and I am avoiding things I know make me sore for a while.

I eat pretty well, but I am cutting out most drinking and not being afraid to eat a little extra. I will purchase my Easter candy now and eat it as a reward post-games. I love Robins Eggs … seriously, they are like the best thing in the world. I’m glad we shared that little moment.

I am practicing things I think will come up in the games and have set aside two days to practice movements once the events are announced. Practice, without killing myself. Not even necessarily incorporating them into a workout.

I will, however, have at least 6 days at the gym in the next 10 or so, so it’s not like this is all rest and no play. You have to stay sharp.

That was way to long. I have no cool pictures to include. I am intensely curious how this will all turn out. Next year I will probably plan this for a much longer time. If I find a good picture I’ll include it later.