UNDERSTANDING WHY WE TAPER FOR A RACE (PART 1)
As most of you know, “tapering” is the period of time before a race where you reduce your training, giving your body the time it needs to fully recover and ensure your body and it’s reserves are ready to go on that start line.
This two-parter will give you the what, why and how on tapering…
WHY SHOULD YOU BE TAPERING?
Essentially, to be in peak form, a reduction in training volume is needed to reduce fatigue and increase alertness. This alertness comes from reducing both volume and intensity, allowing the haze to clear and meaning you can dial down on the skill aspect of your training. If you go into your event dull and fatigued, not only will your physical reserves be already depleted, but you’re more likely to make mistakes and increase the likelihood of injury.
During your taper, you should be looking to maintain those physiological adaptations that you’ve created within your program, but also make sure you’ve adequately recovered from your recent training block.
IT’S A BALANCING ACT!
As we are all fully aware by now, everyone’s training journey is going to be individual. This also applies to tapering, and finding that perfect balance can be a work in progress!
AVOID STARTING TOO EARLY
Make sure you are not completely resting or starting your taper too early. The problem with complete rest or starting your taper too early is that you risk going into ‘detraining’ and undoing your hard work. You may have trained really consistently up until this point; improving the strength and stability of your joints, working on conditioning your muscles, ligaments and tendons so they can cope with your run, ride or swim; and it’s translating across into your power on the bike, splits in the pool or on the track. But stop this completely in the lead up to a race, and you risk undoing your hard work and having a disappointing performance.
GOING INTO YOUR TAPER TOO LATE
Whether it’s a week out from your event or days before, training too much in the days and and weeks leading up to your event means you’re also going to be in danger of underperforming on the day. You’re simply not going to have the sharpness or energy reserves that you want. The reserves simply aren’t going to be there and neurologically your mind isn’t going to be wanting to give 100% either… all whilst increasing the likelihood of injury and mistakes.
If you’re going to be tapering two to three weeks out, your main reservations may be whether you are going to lose fitness, but your cardiovascular conditioning is long lasting. Research shows that you’re not going to lose it quickly. It takes a long time for that kind of conditioning to disappear so you can afford to dial things back. This explains why you should do your last long run as far as one month before a marathon, as studies show you will still be able to maintain the benefit of that, 30 days out from the main event.
MONITORING YOUR STATE OF READINESS
It’s not uncommon for athletes to become sick during their taper, and because of this you’ve really got to make sure you’re aware of how you’re feeling. If you’re feeling lethargic, that’s a sign that potentially you’re tapering for too long. The answer might be to keep things firing with some activation, light strength work and short, sharp sessions. So when you go into the nitty-gritty of what the taper actually looks like, you want to make sure you are still firing throughout the taper, because it will maintain the state of readiness.
DON’T STEP AWAY FROM FUELLING!
During your taper is not the time to step back from nutrition, fuelling and hydration. Make sure your energy and fuel stores are always fully replenished. You will be depleting your energy stores all the way through your big training block in the lead-up, so your taper period is an opportunity to optimise your energy stores without them being depleted by your usual training load.
As soon as you dial back your training, it can seem natural to step back from fuelling too, but this should not be the case - staying consistent will be the key to performing well in your upcoming race.
Tapering is something you should all be considering if you want to get the most out of you’re performance and training, and there are definitely different ways to approach it. Make sure to check out part two where we break down how to go about tapering your strength work.
MUJIKA, I et al. 2004. ‘Physiological Changes Associated with the Pre-Event Taper in Athletes’ , IN Sports Med, 34(13): 891-927
SMYTH, B AND AONGHUS, L. 2021. ‘Longer Disciplined Tapers Improve Marathon Performance for Recreational Runners’, IN Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (3): 1-14