It’s Race Week!! – How I taper For A Race

Another race week – Looking forward to this one.

Zone 3 discount link:
http://zone3.com/HARRY_20

PATREON if you’d like to help support the channel further for less than a coffee and cake:
https://www.patreon.com/harrypalmer

BW Cycling:
https://www.bwcycling.co.uk/category/triathlon

Check out my website and enquire about coaching:
https://www.harry-palmer.com

Check out the T3 Triathlon website:
https://www.t3triathlon.co.uk

Get 10% off SwissSide wheels (Excluding disc) using the coupon code:
SWISSSIDEPALMER

Get 15% off Precision Fuel And Hydration by following this link:
https://visit.pfandh.com/harrysentme

#triathlon #triathlonlife #raceweek

good morning trying to keep my voice down cuz everyone’s still asleep but it’s taper week for Harry with Swansea on Sunday this week so he’s just getting ready with all the tapering Before the Race so we’re going to give you a little bit of a behind the scenes of what he gets up to during a taper week Harry always starts his day with coffee which I bring him every morning so he’ll make his coffee and then he can start the day I think we’ll give him this chicken [Music] mug after his morning coffee which I me him every morning I give him his laptop cuz he normally does a bit of work before we get started with the week or the day can I just yeah say something no we’ve been together for a while now feels like forever does it she’s never made me a bloody Coffee in Bed why are you lying I’m trying to be authentic and real wow I’ve never had I don’t think you know I don’t think you know where the coffee machine is it’s because I do it while you’re still asleep really so while Harry does some work we’re going to go make him his breakfast this is not real like every morning I’m having to be really careful at the minute with what Harry has foodwise CU some bits agree with his stomach and some bits don’t so it’s a bit of trial and error at the minute so we’ve been trying this alpro vanilla yogurt for maybe the last month or so which seems to get on with his stomach really well we did try having blueberries with it but we decided the blueberries actually didn’t work with his stomach he kept getting stomach pain on with them so be nice big dollar of Al pre we’re trying to generally or Harry is trying to generally stay away from um Dairy which seems to be going quite well actually he’s not suffered too much as a result which is good but it’s difficult I mean he’s trying really hard to control the uncontrollable with the stomach problems but some days are better than others so then we look at what he’s eaten that day and maybe try to change [Applause] that a nice big Chun of honey so just let every morning that’s Harry’s breakfast you’re welcome like every morning every morning this is y it’s taper wink race wink yeah what’s the plan for today uh it’s Tuesday today so um yeah we’re full like taper mode been working hard the last few weeks so feeling a little bit fatigued but we still want to keep the body revved up just like lower volume this week a lot lower volume but just keeping some good intensity so the swim will be quite intense as well um and that’s about it really just getting everything ready enjoying the [ __ ] weather not uh hopefully it’ll be good weather on the weekend I have no idea what the forecast would be but because it’s whales it can change every 5 minutes so yeah uh I just put the finishing touches together really that’s it can we ask you some questions about tapering if you have to what is a paper and why do we need it God people can Google these uh okay I’ll try not draw this out too long basically you’re going to be in a really fatigue state with all your training so a taper is to sharpen you up ready for race day so that you can perform at your best basically so when should you do your like last long run or your last long bike or long session generally uh completely depends on a type of person you are and whether you like feeling a bit more recovered going into a race or or not also depends on the race distance um you know if it’s a shorter distance race you can get away with a longer harder session closer to the race and then if it’s a full Iron Man yeah I mean you want to start tapering two to three weeks before the race for 7.3 i’ say a week before it’s plenty you don’t need to do much more than that so my last ride was a last long the ride was Saturday before the race the following Sunday so what you’re saying essentially is depending on the length of race would depend on the length of your taper and when it starts yeah okay so what are the benefits then why should I take well cuz you don’t want to feel [ __ ] uh just so you can be recovered going into the race mentally physically ready sharp you can hit the numbers you want to hit um but then there’s a caveat to that is if you over taper and you recover too much you can then get the lethargic and actually it can feel if anything worse going into a race over recovered than under recovered I would actually almost rather go into a race bit more revved up carrying a little bit more fatigue because I know I can still perform whereas when you’re really recovered you’re just sleepy and horrible like the sensations are very similar but it just it’s it’s not very nice so it’s it’s a balancing act it’s yeah and it’s finally what works well for you okay what about um the safety aspect of tapering obviously you’re week out from race day you don’t want to be getting ill or injured uh yeah so I mean you can see it’s raining so even if I wasn’t racing on the week I still be on the turbo but with the race coming up you just want to like bubble wrap yourself a little bit luckily it’s just onesie we’re going to so we don’t need to think about flights and being at the airport and stuff like that but if something you need to consider then you know think about staying away from as many people as you can face mask stuff like that wash your hands um but for me I’m thinking about not riding outside even if it’s dry just like less possibility of contact with cars stuff like that um sounds a bit rude but staying away from like people um and just being like yeah just being clean hygienic and making sure you’re giving yourself the best chance possible to be fit and healthy and finally what would be your three top tips for tapering three top tips for tapering number one reduce your overall volume number two keep a high amount of intensity or a good amount of intensity just keep revved up number three is like protect yourself um so you know yeah just get a good amount of rest stay like keep washing your hands stuff like that don’t come into contact with too many other people if you can if you can do that um and just be just be really sensible and then a fourth one extra one would be just trust that it will come good on race day because a lot of the time during a taper you can feel pretty [ __ ] the numbers can not be very good like I’m expecting this bike session to actually feel quite hard and these are numbers I should easily hit on race day but it’s just knowing that yeah we’re going through that process and it will come good on race day but you will likely feel pretty [ __ ] the week leading up to the race Wednesday now uh bike is in the bike shop I’ve got the race day trim as well I think this is a lot better than uh the last one so we’re making improvements and I’ve just ordered the last of gels and everything else I’ve got these bits as well these are hair bands which I’m going to use to attach my bottles and also the like these things as well basic we just got different options um just because I’ve used elastic bands in the past they snap I don’t want to be littering I don’t want to be I I don’t want to be the reason why there’s random elastic bands uh in the middle of nowhere in mumbles and Swansea so um something a little bit more secure um and a little bit more permanent uh because there are some pretty bumpy roads out there and we’re going to be traveling at pretty high speeds fingers crossed so need to make sure the bottles are pretty secure um and I’ll show you the bottle setup and and everything um nutrition wise Before the Race in that video um but this video is just kind of explaining yeah the taper the process of the taper and basically just kind of trying to think of every single possibility or or everything that I need before the race get it ordered uh and just get it ready so you’ve got peace of mind so I’ve got new goggles coming everything like that everything’s new everything’s fresh fresh tires fresh chain all of that stuff uh just gives you that peace of mind um I know tires chains stuff like this can be expensive and you can get away with it to a degree but if you want to be as efficient and as fast as possible um you know replacing them fairly regularly for racing is going to be a really really good idea um so that’s kind of the process that I’m going through now uh and then I kind of wanted to touch on actually a little bit about yeah like the stomach the health issues people keep asking you know how’s that stuff going because it’s still something that I’m figuring out in the background essentially I went through uh a big process with the Sports Doctor doing different testing blood tests all samples tests um s a gastroenterologist and basically we’ve kind of concluded that there’s nothing serious going on it’s just kind of IBS um like irritable bowel syndrome so that’s a good thing and a bad thing right so good because it’s nothing like crazy it’s not like Crohn’s disease or there’s nothing else like that a severe going on bad because I was almost praying that it was going to be something where they just go yeah this is what it is and this is what you have to do to get better and job done uh unfortunately as with life in general those things don’t really happen doesn’t happen like that uh there a bit more of a kind of Rocky path to get to that Final Destination um and that’s definitely kind of the path that I’m on at the minute and so essentially IBS is just figuring out what triggers you um or if it’s if it’s a certain thing that triggers you or if it’s a certain amount of something that triggers you or if it’s a you know stress can trigger it uh loads of different things and so essentially I’m writing a diary every single day of what I eat how I feel when I eat it how I feel after eating it how I feel in training all of this kind of stuff it’s a long process to get to a point where I can figure out what foods I need to avoid or type of food I can have but a little bit of um and and an amount that I can tolerate without going overboard essentially so yeah there’s quite a few foods that I’ve completely cut out now essentially stuff like you know Dairy um some other things that trigger me like raw kind of vegetables stuff like that um certain breads can can really trigger me actually but I will do a full video of kind of what I eat in a day now because it has changed quite considerably based on the information I’ve got from the doctor and the stuff that I’ve kind of just been finding out about myself essentially but going forward to the race and how I’m implementing this into my race day essentially what I used to do and this is a really stupid thing is treat race week very differently and completely change my diet and that just doesn’t really make sense you want to have the same stuff like it’s you know it’s it’s just a normal week treat it like a normal week and yes maybe a day or two before race day you want to cut back on stuff like fiber and you want to be having really simple things just to make sure that you know you’re not going to have the risk of an upset stomach or whatever um but I was almost taking it too far so this week essentially I’m keeping it very simple but I’m I’m focusing on like getting into a good routine a similar routine I’ve been in the last few weeks seems to be going well and then before the race yeah I’m just going to have my classic rice and chicken and then a [ __ ] ton of bread and jam uh and that should do me good so that’s kind of yeah I’m looking forward to diving deeper into this process but I will be doing a full day of eating um and talking about the food groups or the types of food that I’m really avoiding and things that have triggered me because if this can help someone else out there who’s struggling with this kind of thing then then that’ll be really good um and that’ll be a success so yeah it’s still things that are lingering in the background but I’m getting to the bottom of it I’m working hard and the training’s feeling good I’m just about to head off on a run now prep Run for the weekend and I’ll make sure I do a race day video of this weekend unfortunately don’t have James with me but I do have family members and friends that hopefully will get some footage um and then yeah can get back back in contact with James pretty soon and get some high quality stuff out to you guys so yeah pretty basic video but I hope you guys have enjoyed it and yeah I’m just really looking forward to seeing you you’re the race Dave you’re going to be there um best of luck to everyone and yeah I’m looking forward to it myself so I’ll see you in the next video