Power Down
Recovering from mental fatigue is every bit as important as recovering from the physical aspects of training. Use the space that opens up from reduced training volume to improve both the quality and quantity of your rest with these three strategies:
- More sleep. Nothing is better for your overall recovery than getting more sack time. Get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep at night and look for ways to build power naps into your schedule.
- If you haven't been meditating, now is a good time to start. Even a few minutes a day can be just as good as a nap. Some of the greatest triathletes in the world, including Mark Allen, made this a standard part of their training plan.
- Reduce your consumption of caffeinated drinks and alcohol to help improve the overall quality of your rest.
More: Alcohol and Running: Do They Mix?
How To Train
Race simulation-type workouts should make up the bulk of your focused workouts during this phase. These are combination training sessions (swim/bike, swim/run, and bike/run sessions) that as much as possible mimic your race conditions.
The key to these sessions is to keep them short to moderate in duration and close to your intended race pace. Don't try to go out and kill it! Your main objectives are to get dialed-in to your race day pace, rehearse your race nutrition, and smooth out your transitions.
Depending on your current fitness you should plan to do one of these race simulation sessions every few days starting two to three weeks before your goal race. In between the key sessions build in lower intensity training as active recovery or take an extra day off. Remember your performance gains come from using the shorter, more intense training session to stay fit while you eliminate the cumulative fatigue built up over months of training.
If your confidence is a little shaky in your level of endurance then it's a good idea to substitute an endurance building session, such as moderate distance aerobic ride immediately followed by a short run, for a race simulation session
