The Taper: Goldilocks temperature

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TRAINING BREAKDOWN

“Not too hot, not too cold”

By Emma O’Toole

Hey!

Today’s newsletter comes at a very crucial time for a lot of runners and cyclists as they approach the start of their key races and events. This week we’re talking about the taper!

What is the taper?

The taper is a reduction to your training before a race/event. It is part of your training plan, a critical part that can make or break your race/event.

The taper is often a really hard time for runners and cyclists because you’ve likely spent the past months training week in and week out. Your weekends have been full of training, you’ve been balancing your running, cycling, strength training, recovery (as well as your everyday commitments)… and now comes the taper … and the restlessness. It almost feels wrong to pull back on your training, like you should be doing more and there’s the underlying doubt that creeps in that you’ll lose fitness. I’ve coached hundreds of runners and cyclists and struggling with the taper is something that the vast majority have all shared in common.

There are lots of different tapering strategies out there and the one you choose will reflect your race/event, your fitness level and experience with running and cycling, what you hope to achieve in the race/event, eg. A 10km taper would look different to a marathon taper, a 10 mile Time Trial taper would look different to a 200 mile Audax event, a sprint distance triathlon different to an Ironman. And finally, your intuition with your body; no-one knows your body better than you so leaning into your own recovery experience is crucial.

How to taper?

The general rule of thumb is to progressively reduce volume (the duration/amount of sessions) whilst maintaining intensity (strides/tempo work/intervals etc). It is not about adding more intensity in these coming weeks where your overall volume drops. For example, your usual 60 minute ride with 30 minutes at tempo on a Tuesday, may become a 40 minute ride with 20 minutes of tempo in your taper period. This is an example of reducing the volume, whilst maintaining intensity.

When does the taper start?

Typically a taper starts 2-3 weeks before your race. A 3 week linear taper could look like this: 20-30% reduction in week one, 40-60% in the second week, and a final 20-30% in race week. For more advanced runners and cyclists only a 10-20% decrease in volume each week could be right for the athlete, again this depending on the athlete’s experience, the race/event they’re tapering for and where it sits in their overall training plan.

Here is an example of how a runner, typically running 40 miles a week, may approach a 3 week taper.

• Total weekly running mileage before a race/event = 40 miles.

• Total weekly running mileage 3 weeks out: 30 miles (25% cut)

• Total weekly running mileage 2 weeks out: 15 miles (50% cut)

• Total weekly running mileage during race week: 10-11 miles (25-30% cut)

Again, in this example those miles run would be focused on quality sessions: recovery runs, tempo runs, interval runs etc. The same goes for cycling miles.

When your taper should start depends on those factors we mentioned above, and using your past experience and knowledge of how your body recovers will help you with when to start your taper.

Where do most runners and cyclists go wrong with the taper?

They either pull back too much, or don’t pull back enough! Think of the taper like Goldilocks porridge- you don’t want your taper to be too hot (too intense/too much volume), but you also don’t want it to be too cold (no intensity/too little volume).

Another mistake made is adding in too many rest days and cramming those miles across 3 days instead of 5, for example. Your body will thrive off of the consistency of what the training you have been doing in the lead up to your key race/event and help prevent that “sluggish” feeling, so rather than cutting training days in favour of rest days from your taper, reduce the volume of those sessions. For example, a typical 60 minute session may become a 30 minute session in your race week. It’s worthwhile noting how you feel throughout your tapering weeks to see what your body responds to as you can use this as learning to take forwards into your next race/events.

What about tapering strength work?

Strength training follows the same principle: reducing the amount of total work you’re doing, whilst maintaining the intensity.

Many runners and cyclists are fearful of lifting heavy weights (relative to them) before a race/event, but it’s a fantastic way to prime your body and leave you feeling sharp for the big day - just as a couple of cadence drills on the bike or strides when you’re running are a good way to prime your body.

Research and practice based coaching has showed time and time again that it’s not the intensity (weight you lift) that will fatigue you, its the volume (the number of sets/reps you do) that will.

Similar to our running and cycling in that we don’t want to experiment with anything new close to (nor on!) race day, in our final strength sessions we don’t want to introduce an exercise that we did 6 months ago, nor one we’ve never seen before- we want to change the volume in the sessions that we have been doing.

Here’s an example of how a strength session could change:

Pre-taper:

4× 5 “Push” squats @ 8/10 RPE

4× 5 Depth Jumps @ 8/10 RPE

3 mins recovery between sets.

14 days out from race/event:

3× 4 “Push” squats @ 8/10 RPE

3× 3 Depth Jumps @ 8/10 RPE

3 mins recovery between sets.

When should my last strength session be before my race/event?

This depends on your usual routine, if you’re usually doing 2x sessions a week. I’d begin to reduce the volume in those sessions 2-3 weeks out before a race/event and in the week of the race drop down to a single session, ideally 4-5 days out from race/event day.

The taper can feel like you're not doing enough, but you're actually doing one of the most important things: allowing your body to fully absorb the gains you've worked so hard for and get you in the best possible shape for your big day. Having a support network like our free community is a great way to stay on top of your taper and get it “just right” being surrounded with runners and cyclists who are going through the taper just like you are or have been there before and know what it feels like.

Embrace the taper, trust your training. Your body knows what to do - now let it do it.

Are you tapering for a race/event at the moment? How are you finding your taper? Please reply to this email or drop me a message here as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Have a great Sunday!

Emma

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