Watch my weight! Currently 99.3 KG and 26.61 % body fat.
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Category: Fitness Blog
Coach Dave Bradley’s Blog
The Dark Art of Tapering
For the uninitiated the period just before a race is known as tapering. This is where you let your body recover from all the hard training you have done over the last few months. In doing so you become stronger and ready for your big race.
We use Training Peaks to measure Paul’s athletic performance. If we can achieve his Chronic Training Load (CTL) and Training Stress Balance (TSL) to coincide on the day of the London Marathon then Paul will run like a dream. (Ideally the TSL score will be about +1) Getting this to happen is really difficult. With Olympians it’s easy. They can rest whenever they want. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to work, look after families and fit training into our busy schedules. In Paul’s case he is flying to China and back. Not exactly the best taper.
A traditional taper should involve similar training sessions to your norm but at much reduced distance and intensity. You DON’T STOP TRAINING. What usually happens is you feel absolutely exhausted as your body goes into repair mode. Hopefully by week 2 or even week 3 if you are on a long taper you are feeling refreshed. In these weeks the training load is even lower.
The new ‘Chinese’ taper for Paul is going to be a reverse taper. This is very little training but plenty of walking this week as he enjoys China. He will hopefully feel dreadful as his body repairs. Next week we will up the training again but only to a very low level. Hopefully CTL and TSB stars will align and he will hit the start line in London at peak condition.
This week’s training focus
Easy training. Testing new trainers. Plenty of walking.
14 days to go
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Sunny Little Run
Well in two weeks I will be in London getting ready to run my first Marathon.
On Friday I had a lovely little run, which was a new route round Denby Dale – Have a look on Strava
Ordered two new pairs of Hoka trainers, keen to get tested!
Weight Update! April 06, 2016 at 08:28AM
Watch my weight! Currently 99.12 KG and 26.45 % body fat.
via IFTTT
Less than 3 weeks to go….
Gentle little run around Flockton, very blessed to live in a beautiful part of the world.
I am feeling very tired and because of the frequency of running my ankle never seems to get chance to recover, so currently not feeling the love for this running game.
I had my first ever sports massage yesterday at Pro Sports Physiotherapy in Huddersfield Mark Schofield did an amazing job but I had no idea how painful a sports massage would be but I guess there are 40 years of knots in my legs!!
Onwards and upwards.
I would be so grateful if you were able to sponsor me, whatever you are able to give, big or small.
Coach Dave Bradley’s Blog
One size doesn’t fit all
Have you noticed how everyone is different? I used to work with dancers. They would see a series of complex dance moves and then just do the dance. A fabulous skill learned over many years. Non dancers would struggle for hours before getting to grips with a routine. The flip side was trying to get a dancer to learn some dialogue. Often this was outside their comfort zone and they found it difficult. It’s the same with triathletes. Everyone has their strengths but some things don’t come naturally and we have to work hard to achieve the performance we want.
As a coach I find this endlessly fascinating. Often what you’ve done as a kid really helps. Junior swimmers can return to the pool later in life and soon regain their fitness. Their swim technique never leaves. At the track we can spot someone who has been a runner in their youth within them completing a few paces. Good technique and timing persist.
Note to parents. Get your children competing in anything and everything. It’s such an important part of their development. Join Wakefield Junior Triathlon Club for example
Paul missed out on the competition element of his sporting childhood. He never got to ‘red line’ in cross country running, swimming galas and the like. He did however learn endless fortitude. Start him in a long race and he will stick at it with no thought of giving up. Something very few people learned in their childhood and will regret when they tackle Ironman.
Learn to race
Ok, the Paul’s Dewsbury Park run was slow. A wonderful example of Level 2 running. Great training but not racing. To achieve a good
time in London is still on the ca
rds. Paul is fit. We simply need to find a way to engage his fortitude but at a faster pace. Luckily the good organisers of the London Marathon are going to provide us with the trick to do just that. More later.
This week’s training focus
One week of hard training left. Tapering then starts next week. We will be trying reverse tapering. Not out of choice but due to Paul’s work commitments. See next week’s blog
Dewsbury Park Run
This is likely to be my last park run before the London Marathon, unfortunately it was sloooooooooooow Check out on Strava
The disappointing thing this morning is I thought I was putting a good level of effort in. I was surprised I only spent 2 seconds at threshold pace. My overall speed was 6:21 km/h.
Having said that getting up on a damp drizzly April morning to run a slow park run did me far more good than having a lie in!
Coach Dave Bradley’s blog
Perfect training pace
Most of Paul’s training is completed at level 2 intensity (we use a 5 level scale derived from Bourg scales). We’ve based his training paces on VDOT predictions and Paul has mainly hit the targets. If we were using a MAF training pace with heart rate at 180 – age -5 which is a heart rate of 135 for Paul then this would also show he has been training at perfect pace for building long distance aerobic endurance.
Polarized training?
We use the principle of polariz
ed training. This is where most of Paul’s training load is at level 2. Many people train too hard. The belief that there is no gain without pain is a nonsense. For years we’ve been conditioned by the fitness industry to train hard all the time. The difference in training effect between Level 4/3 training and Level 2 is minuscule. Except you don’t get injured, recover quicker and can ultimately do more training if you train at lower levels of intensity. To my mind this is a no-brainer.
HOWEVER. There is always a counter side. As we approach races we have to do some tempo training at level 3 or above. In fact, I like my athletes to do one or two hard sessions per week. This is mainly to condition the mind for racing. Paul can run faster but he has to believe he can push himself harder and still succeed. The Lincoln Park Run breakthrough time was evidence of this. You have to race to become good at racing.
This week’s training focus
It’s the last couple of hard weeks before London. Paul is doing at least 5 runs. I would like him to warm up on his lovely WATT bike before each run if possible. This is because I’ve got in mind the switch to Ironman training as soon as London is achieved. Hard efforts in each run (foot niggle permitting) will be good. Maybe a final Park Run this weekend.
Good News
Great to hear Paul’s Mum is out of hospital. I’ve gone through a period where my Mum was in hospital for a long period and understand how difficult this is for everyone. Hopefully she can continue to make progress back at home.
Tale of two lakes
I enjoyed my evening run today after a fun day off with my two daughters.
I ran from the office to Pugnies, one lap and then on to Newmillerdam, did one lap and back to the office, steady 13k. Please have a look on Strava
I was originally hoping to run a sub 4 hour marathon but that is just not going to happen. I would be very happy with sub 4:30 now.
Today I ran under 1/3 of marathon distance and if I maintained the pace would complete the event in 4:48.
Paul Kemshell 