THE ALBERTAN
Heather Fuhr’s record in triathlon is impressive. The Edmontonborn triathlete won the Ironman World Championship in 1997 and took second in Kona in 2004, and won 15 Ironman races during her impressive career. In Western Canada, Fuhr is remembered for setting the female course record at the Great White North Triathlon in Stony Plain, Alberta. That record still stands after 27 years.
Fuhr’s greatest achievement in the sport was her Kona win. She recalls that she used a three-week taper, in which she kept the frequency of her training the same for the first two weeks, but with a considerable decrease in volume. Her final taper week involved very short workouts, with some “pick ups” to remind her body about how race pace was supposed to feel.
“My training had gone very well leading into the taper, I was able to hit my training markers while managing the fine line between effective training and over-training. Race week arrived and my race commitments increased along with my anxiousness. I found myself feeling great on all of my short workouts and excited to race. I was feeling nervous, but it was a nervous excitement rather than anxiety. On race day, I could usually tell how my body was going to feel based upon the first few swim strokes after the gun went off. The gun went off and things felt great, my body responded and during the tough parts of the race, I felt mentally strong, so I could will my body to push through. I had the perfect taper both physically and mentally and this resulted in one of those special days.”
One of the challenging aspects in tapering for many triathletes is food. Since you train less, you burn less calories. It would be disappointing to gain a pile of weight the week before an “A” race, because of a few extra tacos or slices of pizza. Fuhr believes that doing the opposite – using the taper as an opportunity to achieve some sort of anorexic “race weight” – is more counterproductive than putting on an extra pound or two. She stresses that along with over-training, one of the worst things an athlete can do is go into a major event depleted.
I FELT MENTALLY STRONG, SO I COULD WILL MY BODY TO PUSH THROUGH