Pre-race recovery time?

You should taper over at least a week before your race. In general, people take 1-2 days of complete rest right before the race.

And what do you mean - no one listens to you! When is your race?

If you listened to me you would know! lol just kidding

It's May 2nd. Provided I can find a bike to ride. It's a short Tri. And backwards. Run/Bike/Swim 5k/15k/400m in a pool (which is why its backwards.

The 5k run is going to be my slowest part. The rest is catch up. My friend that if he doesn't drop me enough in the run then he won't win. He's a great runner, but I can out power and out last him in Spinning class. And if I touch the water before he's out of the pool, I've got him. hehehe

yeah, i would taper over the last week prior to your race ....interesting backwards race ...good luck

It depends on the race distance, and how important it is to you. My first race is a 25K run but not really important in my race schedual. I am going to try and get one or two longer workouts at the begining of the week and take it easy the last few days. For my main race in September, I will taper a full two weeks before the event.
About a week is a normal taper. Good luck in the race, and I hope you get your friend in the bike or swim. You have the advantage. He won't be able to see you coming.

I'm 6'4", 235 pounds. He would have to be blind to not see me coming! lol

Hey Mike--

The length of the race dictates the length of the taper:

1/2 IM... 2 weeks
Oly... 10 days
Sprint... 1 week

..or so, but that's my philosophy. In terms of the taper, you still want to exercise, but slowly decrease your distances, but keep pace and intensity at race pace...

I don't think that I would take 2 days off, myself (but that's just my personal philosophy. What I would do is the day before your race, do a mini-mini tri. 10 to 15 min of each sport, with high intensity. The day before that, I would probably do the same, or do 20-30 minutes of one activity. You do want a rest day, but I'm not sure that I think it's super helpful to have it the day before your race--you want to be a bit jumpy!!

That's my personal philosophy, for what it's worth!!

I'm also racing on May 2nd. I'll send a good thought out to you... in Japan??

Dana