Week IM – 2: The Taper Period

Looking at the training time charts, it’s going to look like a mountain descent from this week on. Last week, I broke 20 hours between swim, bike, run and Strength & Conditioning. This week, it was less than 10.

I did the main weekend session on Wednesday, because I was away for the weekend. That was a 13km run followed by an 87km bike over Bohernabrina, through Blessington and Lackin and back over the Sally Gap. It was a really nice evening and the cycle back up hill to the Sally Gap from the west was incomparably more pleasant to the same cycle in driving rain a month ago.

I concentrated a lot on stretching and foam rolling this week – working on exercises to activate the glute when running to try to compensate for the over dominant hip flexor. This probably a result of spending several hours on the bike where the hip flexor and quads do most of the work. It seems to be working well as I haven’t experienced any more problems running. I just did one 1.4km swim session with a 2x600 main set, done at a good pace.

On Saturday, in heat of about 30C, I went running in Paris. I started the first 9Km in a park to the west of the city and then did a loop around by the Eiffel Tower. It went really well, I finished at the pace I’d run a 5km at and had no problems at all with the tendonitis I’ve been trying to keep at bay. Because of space restrictions travelling, I brought the lighter Nike Zoom runners that I’d used for shorter triathlons over the last 3 years. I had been planning to use the more cushioned Assics Nimbus in the IM because of the length of the I run. I hadn’t actually trained in the Zooms for months, but it really went well. I’ll do 2 or 3 more session in the lighter Nikes and if they go well, I’ll stick with what’s worked and go with the Nikes. This was the route I travelled, the Champs Elysees was a bit too far to squeeze in but I did get the Eiffel Tower onto the route.

All in all, this was another good week. I’ve conquered the peak of the training mountain, although I’ll continue to ignore the taper for the run for one more week to try and squeeze in a last few long runs – I really do think they’ll help on the day – both physically, and a lot more importantly, to put my mind more at ease on the bike as my first ever marathon approaches.