Final week before sprint?

Lots of folks here will tell you that you don't really need to taper for a sprint, but I suspect that many of those folks race Oly's, .5IM's and IM's. As a sprinter, I disagree. I tend to eliminate two-a-days and cut back workout lengths from 60 minutes to 45ish. My second-to-last workout in each discipline will have some hard intervals, and the last one will be easy. A day off on Friday is nice, or an easy swim. Saturday, I tend to check my bike over and take a really short ride to make sure everything's working and give the legs a short hard blast. Sleep lots. Stretch lots. I get edgy and have to supress the urge to get out and log more hours, but it's good to be fresh, rested, and ready on race day.

Here is your current plan. Sorry, the way you wrote it out was way too confusing.

Monday-
Swim 1000 meters in 30 min
pace run - 3 mi

Tuesday-
stationary bike – 6 mi. in 25 min

Wednesday-
Swim 1000 meters in 30 min
Speed run 10x450 ft

Thursday-
road bike – 16 mi

Friday-
Swim 1000 meters in 30 min
distance run – 5 mi


All I would do is back off on each discipline. I would probably run 2 times, ride once and swim once. But that's just me. Still so... I have a race on Saturday, a sprint, and I didn't change my training this week at all. Then again, I have been doing this for 5 years and have done Sprints-Oly-HIM-IM.

I don't know.  I guess my goals would be 54-55 min. for the bike and around 23 min. for the run.  The problem is that I'm new to swimming so I really don't know how long that will take.  Maybe 15-16 min.?  So, maybe I can do it in less than 1 hr. 40 min.?  Won't be long until I figure that out.

Sorry that schedule was confusing.  I separated it by discipline, not day of the week.  Thanks for the advice.

The swim may take longer than expected. Many people experience an open-water freakout due to the thrashing of arms and legs and the difference from the pool. You can't really change your preparation at this point, save for the tapering, which may be more crucial to a beginner than to someone who's been doing longer races for years. Have fun. Keep a level head if things go wrong. Watch others and learn as much as you can. Most importantly, have fun.