Peak Versus Taper

Leading into the Australasian Police & Emergency Services Games, I was a little conflicted with how to lead in. I want to race at my best, but I know if I went in with a full taper then my preparation for the marathon to follow would suffer. Not because of any lost training sessions, more so because if I hit a true peak in performance, then there is very likely a slump to follow. So I took an approach that hopefully still has me performing well without carrying undue fatigue through my races and still has me improving in the weeks afterwards. As usual, what went on paper ended up a bit different when it came to putting the runners on.

This is what the previous two weeks of training has looked like:

Sat: 4x2km at 10km pace, with 400m jog recovery. Total 17km.

Sun: Easy 18km.

 Mon: An attempted interval session, but realised I was getting sick (thanks to a sharing family), realised it wasn't going to happen. So ended up taking it easy for 12km.

 Tue: Easy 11km

 Wed: Feeling better, so hit the intervals. 6x2000m @ 5km race pace with 600m jog recovery plus 3x200m sprint. Total 16km of running. This was a very hard session, and left me destroyed for the rest of the day.

 Thu: off - night shift and left calf was feeling very tender.

 Fri: Very easy 11.5km, the legs were still absolutely hammered.

 Sat: Long: aim was to run a solid 21.5km over 3x7.5km, but during the run my left calf showed up to be very sore and was seizing up during the run. So I only completed 2 of those laps with a total of 20km run for the day. I was happy with the pacing, but better to play it safe.

 Sun: Very easy 10.5km.

 Mon: Progression run of 12km. Starting very easy the paces built gradually up through half marathon pace to close to 5km race pace over the first 10km, then the final 2km as cool down. My legs felt great and had that snap and spring that has me feeling fast. No issue with the calf.

 Tue: Very easy 10.5km.

 Wed: 10x200m at the track, with 200m float recovery. Speeds of the intervals were at 5km race pace or faster, but based on feeling comfortably quick. 12km for the full session.

 Thu: Now for the mini taper, an easy 8km. I felt like my legs kept trying to take me faster.

 Fri: Easy 5km. Felt like a warm up. Not a bad way to lead into the Opening March and Ceremony for the Games.

A few of the Victorian Ambos. Ready for the opening ceremony.

For me, the Games begin with 5000m on the track and are followed up with the half marathon 4 days later. Should be fun.

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