The Taper Paper

This is a topic I get a lot of questions about.  A taper is the period just before a
key race, where you strategically reduce your overall workload and tune up your
higher intensity systems to get the body ready for the fast pace and/or long
distance to be raced.

When to start  I believe most races  can be adequately prepared for with a two
week taper.  Two weeks allows for an adequate reduction in mileage, and is a
very simple time period to manage.  I have found that most athletes have more
difficulty with a three week taper.  A three week period often leads even
experienced athletes to:

1.  Rest too much and lose some fitness

or

2.  Get bored and antsy, because they feel good for the first time in a while, and
they go out too close to the race and train too hard.  They have already raced
their race before the big day.

Very elite athletes may employ very specifically tailored tapers that last 4 or 6
weeks.  This is especially true when the race is an all or nothing one day affair,
like the Olympics.  Most athletes, however, plan on more than one race in their
season, and in fact, have more than one race planned for a particular taper
period.

What types of races should you taper for?  Any race---multi-day, 24-hour bike
race, Ironman, 100m dash, 100 mile run.  The concept of training itself demands
it.  If you are working towards some athletic goal, the way you make yourself
stronger, faster, more efficient, etc. is characterized by:

PHYSICAL STRESS causes soft-tissue damage, then
RECOVERY/REBUILDING occurs allowing SUPER-COMPENSATION.

This cycle is the hallmark of training.  Typically in training we allow just enough
recovery to have nearly full performance capabilities.  So in day-to-day training
we still have some cumulative damage left over.  With a taper the idea is to hit
your race day at the peak of your recovery with full potential for maximal
performance.  So if you train then you must recover from it to perform maximally.

Workload  How much should you reduce your mileage?  That depends on the
race distance.  For a longer race, like a 24-hour mountain bike race, you might
cut your mileage in half for both weeks of the taper.  For a short race, like a 5K
footrace, the cuts will be milder, perhaps on the order of 20% the first week and
30% the second.

You are cutting the distance, but increasing the intensity.  The second week, with
it's larger mileage cuts, will have more intensity brought into it.  The intensity
should be at or near race pace, especially if race pace is higher than anaerobic
threshold (AT), like it is for much of a 5K.  
 
For much longer races, I think it is very beneficial to just work at AT or slightly
below, as long as you have done some work at this intensity or greater in your
training.  For solo 24 hour racers or novice Iron-distance triathletes, that aren't
competitive and just want to finish, it is possible you may not have done any
higher intensity work and this could be appropriate for you.  (If you have finished
a 24-hour race or an Ironman and you want to do it better or faster, then you
should be doing some intensity, but that is for a different article.)

Day Off
It is my experience that if you are going to take a day completely off during the
race week, it should be done earlier in the week (like Monday or Tuesday for a
Saturday or Sunday race) rather than later.  The reason I recommend avoiding
late-week days off is because of the importance of the last 3 days before the
race.  

Over these last few days exercise sessions are short to very short with 2-6
"pick-ups" at or near race pace to get you breathing a little bit.  This is important
to insure you are peaking your body's metabolic processes.  In a non-injurious
way you want to stimulate your muscles to continue utilizing lactate, binding
calcium, consuming oxygen as efficiently as possible.  

This can vary between individuals, but I have often noticed racers feeling a little
flat after a day off.  The prelude to your race should be characterized by
progressive feelings of strength, energy, and restfulness.  Having a "flat" day
can interfere with this.

Last three days
I will use my schedule for an Saturday Iron-distance triathlon as an example:

Wednesday:  Usually a travel day, so I stretch gently in the airport(s) and sip
fluids (I have to fight dehydration when I travel....I think because meal schedules
are thrown off).  When I reach my destination I go for a 25-30 minute jog.  I start
very slowly and stay off asphalt/concrete if I can.  I will do one very easy pick-up
for about 2 min, so that I am just breathing  a little harder the 2nd minute.  
Should recover from the pick-up in about 30 seconds.  Stretch gently after
cool-down.

Thursday:  If  I can check-in for the race today I get it over as quickly as I can.  I
may spend a few minutes looking around the expo since it is just Thursday.  Put
bike together and go for a short 30 minute ride to debug it, may push a little for
about two or three minutes to get breathing a little harder....again, recovery in 30
seconds or so.  Short run (about 20-30 minutes) with two or three 1-1.5 minute
pushes....again, just to get breathing a little harder.  Get a good nights
sleep....tomorrow night may not be so easy.

Friday:  If I have to go to race check-in today, it is a quick in-and-out affair as
early in the day as I can manage.  Of course, since I have to leave the bike I will
do a final 20 minute shake-down on it and another 15-20 minute run with three
or four 200m striders, before I go.  I don't mess around at the expo at all.  I get
back to the hotel with all of my duties completed for the day and relax.  I am a big
proponent of remaining horizontal the rest of the day.  

I will only make this mistake once:  Early in my career, I walked around an expo of
a race, gawking for a couple hours at all the cool products.  By the time I got
back to my hotel, my feet and lower leg muscles were tired and felt, but didn't
look, swollen.  I felt like I had been to the mall....I needed a nap.  I had the worst
race of my life the next day....I felt so wasted.

So relax.  Put your feet up.  Get a few movies and convalesce.  I try to make sure
I sip an electrolyte drink and snack lightly all day.  I eat dinner earlier in the
evening (about 6PM), and go to bed around 9 or so, since wake-up might be
4AM.

I found that following a set taper, gets me to race day feeling energized and
ready to punish myself.  Since it is the first time in weeks or months that I have
felt 100%, I am usually bouncing off the walls.  Everyone is different so start with
this and experiment to find what gets you charged up and ready to race.