Why Am I Doing This: Tapering
Never has a term for rest ever found more scorn than “taper.” The thought of it makes many runners (mine included) feel like their fitness is “wasting away.” All the hours spent building into an aerobic diesel engine…gone.
But let’s not be overly dramatic…you’re fine. All is well, nothing is lost.
Ok, now that you’re calm lets talk about why you NEED to taper if you want to race at your best.
Tapering is just a formal term for lowering your training load. As you approach 1-3 weeks before race day (depending on distance and your experience) you’ll start to drop your weekly mileage or running time by 25-50 percent. This is so you take the fatigue out of your legs and increase your race readiness. Key word: RACE READINESS. Any more hard workout will only drain your energy without increasing your fitness and make you tired for race day (Race Readiness)
A study found “Results indicated that strict 3-week tapers were associated with superior marathon finish-time benefits (a median finish-time saving of 5 min 32.4 s or 2.6%) compared with a minimal taper” The researchers also found “The findings also highlight how most recreational runners (64%) adopt less disciplined (2-week and 3-week) tapers and suggest that shifting to a more disciplined taper strategy could improve performance relative to the benefits of a less disciplined taper.” (PMID 34651125)
The other thing you’ll notice about a taper is that even though your workouts are shorter, they’ll stay at the same speed or get slightly faster (again this depends on your race distance); This is to sharpen your legs and maintain your fitness.
That’s the key to this whole taper thing: We drop your volume but we keep your intensity. This allows you to recover while also mitigating the loss of your fitness. This is why I love to program strides and sprints towards the end of your training. Stay sharp, but fresh. See…not just trying to make you hurt :)
I already hear the rebuttals “But what if I taper too much…I’ll lose so much fitness. No you won’t. This isn’t an exact science, but taper’s are usually no more than 2 weeks long. As long as you're running and getting some faster workouts, you’ll lose next to nothing…and what you’ll gain (rest, recovery, energy) will far outweigh the fitness. What you’ll gain in the taper:
5-6% improved performance on race day
Up to 15% increase in red blood cell volume
Up to 5% reduction in cortisol (stress hormone)
Up to 20% increase in power, neuromuscular function and strength
Jack Daniels (The run coach, not the bourbon) has long stated that American runners frequently over train and under taper for the biggest events (olympics, worlds champs, ect…) and this one of the reasons we don’t do as well as we could on the world stage. We tend to think more is more…when in fact, sometimes less is. (Thankfully since I first wrote this in 2023 we have come along with our training techniques, but I still think we over train and don’t let our bodies rest enough before race day")
So take a shot (get it) of advice from Jack and let your body rest. You earned it, just have to use it.
Happy Running, Coach D
