2026 Season Episode 13: Half Ironman Taper, Fueling, and Race-Week Planning
Episode 13 of the 2026 Season is LIVE
Half Ironman Taper, Fueling, and Race-Week Planning
Take a behind-the-scenes look at what a coaching call sounds like when an athlete is two weeks out from a half Ironman. Coach Lauren walks through Dr. Jordan’s taper, recovery priorities, and a detailed race-day fueling plan, showing how individualized endurance coaching changes as race day gets close. The final two weeks are not just about training harder or doing less; they are about protecting recovery, dialing in nutrition, and practicing exactly what the body will need on race day.
Key topics
How peak weeks differ from taper and why peak training is about accumulating fatigue and learning to perform on tired legs.
Dr. Jordan shares that he has felt heavy and under-recovered in recent sessions, which Coach Lauren ties to peak-week fatigue, limited sleep, and the demands of an abbreviated build.
How to customize around work, life stress, and recovery, including lighter aerobic days, reduced lifting load, and occasional forced rest days.
Adequate sleep and fueling are major performance priorities.
Why race weight is not a useful goal this close to competition, and why performance, energy, and recovery matter more than scale weight.
Going over race-day logistics including arrival the afternoon before, packet pickup, and getting settled the night before along with a race-morning timing strategy based on the start time.
Review of grams of carbs per hour and ounces of water/electrolytes needed during the bike and running portions of the race.
Listen now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
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