Tapering -should you?

Ahh the good old taper. The thing most of us do, most us think we know why, yet most of us are wrong!! I'll admit that's somewhat presumptive, aggressive even. However, it's true that most runners are very specific about how they taper and why they taper but 99/100 when I speak to an athlete it turns out they don't really know the real impact of what they're doing, or whether the approach is the right one for them.

As I'm just 2 weeks out from my next 100km race, I thought it was a good subject to address. Right, let's get to it and dissect this often misunderstood and misused element of a training program.

What is tapering? Tapering is a systematic reduction of training volume and often intensity, for a period of time leading up to a specific event. In short, doing less training just before a race.

Why taper? Well, put simply the overall objective of tapering is to reduce fatigue leading up to an event, without losing fitness to try and ensure 'fresh legs' on race day.

How long should you taper for? There's no exact science here as we're all different and have likely different training plans resulting in different levels of fatigue. however, 2 weeks is a very typical time frame for goal races, less (maybe no taper at all) for non goal races.

Does it work? Well, yes but this is the bit that might get people disagreeing - probably not as much as you think or are led to believe. The science to date indicates a well structured and executed taper can aid performance on race day by between 0.5-6%!! Yep, that's it, with the typical average being 3%. Now this is assuming it's a well structured and executed plan, which most tapers probably are not as they need to account for work, family etc.

It's fair to question whether such a small performance gain is going to be impactful for the vast majority of ultra runners, doing so as a hobby. The psychological benefits of a taper are harder to account for and will benefit some more than others (me included).

Overall though, tapering is a good way to mentally and physically recover from a tough training block, most likely in the case of Ultra running, your endurance block - those long days on the trails.

Should I even bother then? Well if you're a pro runner than 100% yes, those percentages certainly matter. However, if you're a hobbyist challenging yourself, it's your call. For the latter, a taper isn't going to impact your finishing of the race and probably not even the time by any meaningful amount - or at least not any more than having a nice relaxing day the day before a race and not doing any super long runs a couple of days out will!! you know, just being sensible.

Are there any risks of tapering? Tapering shouldn't pose risks if you're sensible but a couple of points to note are not to taper too aggressively. Our bodies react to the reduction in training load, and if too severe can fool your body in to thinking it's job done. Signs of this are heavy legs when you run again and general lethargic feeling. Basically don't go from 10 hours per week to 1. It's important to still work during the taper, just knock it back a bit. The other risk I see, although not science backed is if athletes cut back too much, they tend to increase the chance of getting sick. This could be correlation as opposed to causation, but I see it a lot.

the most common tapering models

How should I structure my taper? Well, there are a few taper models, with exponential tapering being proven to be the most effective. But perhaps it's easier to give you a look in to how I am currently tapering, because despite the meagre benefits, it is something I do and feel helps me mentally prepare for race day. Sort of, a little treat to myself after all the hard work before race day :)

Now for context the last 7 weeks since I ran UTMB Ultra Tour of Snowdonia have consisted of 8-9 hours training per week. This included 2 hours per week of resistance training in the gym (legs and core only) and the rest has been running for endurance (5-7/10 on the intensity scale. With all long runs (weekend) being on hilly trails.

Wk1: Total training hours will reduce to 5 hours. All gym work stopped. Weekend long run (trail) reduced to c2 hours, firmly at 5-6/10 intensity. Walking any hills that might increase that too much. With the weather being so hot right now, I may even reduce total hours to 4 as I find recovery takes a little longer in the heat for me.

Wk2 (race week): Total training hours will reduce to 2. 1 x endurance intensity (5-6/10) road run, 1 x easy (4-5/10) intensity road run.

Race day is Saturday of the 2nd week. I'll also be working the morning before travelling/driving on the Friday for 3.5 hours (not ideal at all).

Note: During the taper I also make sure to get on the foam roller every morning and do a stretch session every evening, ensuring I'm in bed early (9.30pm ish).

Now this is just what feels right for me and seems to put me in a place where both physically and mentally I know what my legs should feel like on race day. As mentioned above, what's right for one person isn't always right for another.

Right that's it, if you made it this far then thank you and be sure to come back in a few weeks for the next race report. As I write this the weather forecast for race day is 26 degrees which is just about as bad as it gets for me so fingers crossed!!