Tapering

Competing in the CMC has been a good learning experience for me, as both an athlete and a coach.  Anyone can go online and find a handful of recommendations and training plans for a marathon, half marathon, 10k, a powerlifting meet, or how to peak for an olympic lifting competition.  However, the CMC, with its demands of so many different abilities, has really been a test of my programming skills and subjective intelligence of my own body's capabilities - both performance and recovery related.  When I competed in the Civilian Military Combine for the first time, it was a real challenge to figure out how to mesh a strength program together with an anaerobic endurance program.  I came in 6th place and decided that the limiting factor that kept me from the top 3 was my aerobic endurance.  I completed the PIT with the 3rd most reps of any competitor, so my anaerobic training methods seemed to have worked well.  However, one of the biggest challenges for me was deciding when and how to start tapering to take advantage of a big performance gain for the competition.  Tapering is different for everyone.  A novice may only have to taper training 3 days before a competition whereas an elite athlete may start tapering for a solid 3-4 weeks.  What I have discovered is that I fall in the 3-4 week category.

**By the way,  besides performing fast runs, all I did to prepare was use the prowler once a week for a very intense workout and a light PIT run-through where I would complete the PIT with the normal rest and work prescriptions, but completing only 45-75% of my max PIT reps.  After the CMC in Brooklyn on 9/22/12, I will be working on my 2nd article, "How to Dominate Mud Runs and Obstacle Races Part II - The Civilian Military Combine", in which I will discuss my training program in depth to help you all perform your best.

I'm sitting here 16 days out from competition and I am TIRED.  I can just tell that my body is in need of recovery.  What's crazy about this is that I was sick last week, and the week before that I had a deload week.  So really, I've already been tapering for 2 weeks, which is going to mean a full 4 week taper for this competition.  What sucks about tapering is that I feel like shit, both physically and mentally.  Physically, I know that my body is tired.  I tried to do pullups yesterday for my hypertrophy upper body day.  I can usually do 15-20 in my first set, but this time, I felt weak after 6.  After 5 years of persistent training, I have come to understand that that is my body telling me that I am just not fresh, and this validates the fact that I should be tapering.  Mentally, I am very much out of my comfort zone.  I'm going from a solid 3 months of hitting strength and anaerobic PR's, to having 50-75% effort days and decreasing my frequency.

The smartest (and commonly the most successful) athletes grow to understand their bodies very well: understanding its limits, and its signs.  Being tired after 6 pullups is a sign.  Going surfing today and being exhausted is a sign.  Deep down we all feel lazy during a deload or tapering period, but it is what separates the elite from everyone else.  If you feel that you can still hit PR's a few days before competition you have not been training hard enough or you are just being stupid.