Alright, alright, alright
We’re going to cover:
- What a taper is
- Why would someone taper
- What is the ‘best’ way to taper
- Best practices for tapering
- How do I sometimes taper
- Some things to consider when planning your taper.
Let’s just get right into it!
So what is a taper?
A taper is a way to recover and feel the best we’ve felt on race day by reducing our overall weekly mileage in the two or three weeks leading up to the big race.
Why would someone taper?
Tapering allows us to rest and recover from all the training we’ve put in. That way on race day we can give our best performance.
What is the ‘best’ way to taper?
Well, it’s a mix of a science and an art – we’re all different
Really, what’s the best way to taper for me?
A principle that is commonly accepted is that rest over training hard in the weeks leading up to the race is a way to reach our peak performance on race day. (some people skip the whole taper thing and just put out every day)
For this taper thing, different components are subject to change:
- How often are we racing and tapering
- How long does the taper last
- How intense or how long our training sessions are during our taper
- What’s the reason for the taper? Is this the race we’re going all out or just training?
Person A races every month, so they taper most months too, but their taper only lasts one week and during that week they do sprints.
And person B race twice a year, taper for 3 weeks each race by slowly dropping their mileage following more of a low volume low-intensity approach
See the difference? There’s no right or wrong either
What’s best for me?
And that’s going to be changing too as we get older, more experienced, etc
BUT
there are best practices for tapering….
Best practices for tapering
- The most common taper time is 10 – 14 days, 21 days is a thing too
- 2 – 3 days before race day, mileage is minimal.
- When tapering, a rule of thumb is to decrease total miles a certain percent each week from peak week (X because do what works for us, try 10%, 20%, even 50%)
- During the taper maintain the intensity of training sessions or even slightly increase the intensity, but decrease the total overall mileage.
And If we’ve done the work in training, this short taper will not negatively affect us at all – it enhances us.
One thing to note: 2 weeks prior to an ultramarathon or any other big race, things may start to hurt. Anxiety, excitement, and jitters start to set in and phantom pains come and go – it seems to happen but it’s just a phase – and if we’ve given ourselves enough time, race day we will be dialed in.
Maybe it’s from all the beating we took during training and our bodies are catching up? I just know it happens. Dare I say ‘normal’?
How do I sometimes taper?
The following is not “advice”. It’s for you to get an idea of how I taper and prepare my body for an ‘A Race’. And really, I learned a lot from experienced ultra runners. I am constantly trying new things to see what works best for me.
This is what I did for my last taper, a 200-mile race, essentially a 3-week taper:
- My peak mileage three weeks before the ultra – was 106 miles.
- In the first taper week, I went about 70% of the peak-week mileage. 70 miles.
- Then in the second taper week, I ran about 50% of the peak week mileage – 50 miles.
- That gets me to the week of the ultra, week three of taper – which was super light in this case. I’ll still take the dog out for slow jogs for about a mile or so but that’s really it in terms of running. (weekly miles of race week, before the race was less than 10)
And race day? Or in the case of the 200 – days – I left it all out there!
During the taper, I try to eat as much good food as I can. Sometimes I cut, to run faster.
I try to get lots of sleep a week before the event because I never get a full night’s sleep the night before the race, plus I knew I’d be sleep deprived during the race.
Recently, my schedule is designed to build from one race to the next and some races this year are used as training runs which will have little or no tapering involved.
My taper for this next race:
- 92 miles week 1 (race)
- 25 mile recovery week 1
- 43 mile recovery week 2
- 55 mile recovery week 3 (8k vert)
- 60 mile recovery week 4
- Race week 100k
Some things to consider when planning your taper
We’re all different. Different commitments, desires, time, responsibilities, priorities, etc
Figure out what works for us
Here are some things to consider:
- Are all tapers the same? Should I taper the same way for a 50k vs a 200 miler?
- Do different races require different tapers?
- Is this race an ‘A’ race or a training run?
Do what works best for you, learn, and keep improving!
Thanks for tuning in. I appreciate your attention!
Go get your miles, peace!!!
Joe DiAndrea 