Tapering: Your Science, Your Art
From GRP Biathlete Jake Brown
Tapering is such an alluring concept. On one hand, you, the athlete, simply (and theoretically) train less and run faster. On the other hand, it’s almost a mythical pursuit to try and figure out the perfect string of workouts that puts you in top form. If you’re reading this, you’re likely a runner who knows the giddy feeling when a taper goes well: that feeling of cruising down the track, road, or trail at a formerly difficult pace, pushing harder and faster with each step.
The bird’s-eye theory of why tapering works is built upon this simplified model of performance:
Performance = Fitness - Fatigue
With proper training we build fitness over time, but we also increase the level of underlying fatigue we carry. In doing so, our performance may slowly increase or even decrease depending on the training load and what systems are fatiguing. When we train less, both fitness and fatigue decrease. The beneficial part of a taper for most athletes is that, when properly executed, a taper causes fatigue to drop far quicker than fitness, allowing performance to achieve a temporary “peak.”
I recently listened to a great episode of the Run Free Podcast with Ryan Hall on peaking and tapering. Ryan shares a story from high school in which he and his dad mixed up his start time and missed his race altogether - he had been so nervous and fearful of the task in front of him that he was actually happy that he didn’t have to race. The crazy thing is - I knew exactly what he was talking about. I’ve felt that feeling. Maybe you have, too (and if you haven’t, I’m jealous!).
Ryan’s podcast inspired me to write about tapering for this blog, but the reason I bring up his anecdote is because I want to share my antidote. My general remedy for nerves based in fear is to view every racing or training opportunity with interest, curiosity, and excitement. Figuring out what about racing piques your interest, curiosity, or excitement is part of this challenge. Sometimes for me it’s competition that gets me excited. Often at the beginning of the season, it’s more mild curiosity about how I will stack up. But sometimes neither is the case and I again find myself fearful of the daunting race ahead together with its pain and uncertainty. However, one thing remains that gets me curious about racing no matter what time of the season is the continuous experiment of being an athlete. If you treat racing and training as an individual experiment, you have no choice but to be interested, curious, and hopefully excited about the results you will observe. Tapering is the perfect opportunity to cultivate this mental approach.
This season, consider selecting two are three major races that you would like to taper for. There are plenty of resources out there in the wide world of running, including pre-made taper training plans and opinions on the perfect pre-race workout. Let the experiences of others and the opinions of expert coaches guide your tapering principles but not strictly dictate your plan. In my opinion, anyway, tapering is more individualized than base training. Therefore it’s very important to treat each taper opportunity as your individualized experiment, keep an open mind, and simply observe what “works” and what doesn’t.
So now that I’ve encouraged you to take freedom in your taper training, here are some of my thoughts, experiences, and observations to consider among others when you taper:
1. No more “Distance”
Generally, my weekly taper volume is around 50% of my highest weeks from summer training. But to be honest I don’t really care how low it is, only that it isn’t too high. During this time, distance running should be renamed “easy running” and is for recovery, warming up, and cooling down only. In fact, during the taper my intensity days often take more time than my “distance” (read: easy) days. Even for ski racing, which usually allows for higher volumes than does running, my longest ski of the week will rarely exceed 90 min if I want to be racing fast.
2. Prioritize intensity
For me, figuring out what to do for my intensity sessions and then prioritizing those sessions above all else is the most important part of tapering. I also find trimming down intensity workouts to be helpful, but I don’t like to cut them by 50% like I would volume.
3. Don’t do anything special
When it comes to the type of training you do, I wouldn’t do anything I haven’t done before. No ripping repeat 200s, no matter how few of them, if you haven’t consistently been doing so in your training, for example. You are only trying to prime systems that you’ve already trained, not activate new ones.
4. Mix speeds
I really like mixing speeds in my training as I lead up to races. I like to do at least one mini-workout that touches on threshold training, race-pace training, and anaerobic tolerance all in one session in the week leading up to a race. The thought is that it helps to prime all the racing systems I’ll need.
5. Don’t cut fuel
It can be really tempting to cut caloric intake while cutting volume. I wouldn’t do it. If you keep your intensity up during your taper then your engine is going to be running hot throughout the day even when you’re not training. Carbohydrates are my best friend during this time, especially immediately after training sessions. If you stay in a starved state too long after your workout you are delaying your recovery and increasing the additive fatigue from that workout- the exact thing you are trying to minimize during taper. You might even put on a few pounds during taper since water clings to carbohydrates- I often do. That extra energy can allow you to execute a good pre-race workout the day or two prior to the race (for shorter races) and stay energized for a good warm-up the day of. If anything, I usually eat a lot in the week leading up to the race and then don’t eat as much on race day so I can race with a light stomach but well-fueled muscles.
6. You might feel lethargic during the week: that’s OK
Especially if you’ve wrapped up a tough training block, your body might fall into a bit of a lull. Let it happen, at first. However, don’t race lethargic! Especially for shorter races, it’s important for me that I wake my body the day or two before a race with a short workout that touches on all the racing systems I want to activate. In my experience this workout can feel AWFUL. In fact, sometimes my best races occur after an awful feeling pre-race or warm-up where I force myself to wake up. In his podcast, Ryan Hall shared that he and his teammates had a similar theory while running at Stanford.
7. Don’t be afraid of a good warmup
If you had a healthy season of base training, you’ve been fueling well, and especially if you’re still feeling lethargic, don’t be afraid of getting in a good warm-up with a little intensity before the race. You should feel alert on the start line with your muscles activated and warm. For a shorter race this is worth the price of a little fatigue. I like including 5 minutes tempo + 2 x 1 min at race effort, for example, but I vary this depending on race distance and how I feel.
8. Consider the length of your peak
In high school and college, my goal was to peak for two weekends- sectionals and state in H.S. and regionals and NCAAs in college. The game is totally different for me now as a biathlete. I want to be at the top of my game for World Championships in February, but the entire World Cup season from November to March is no joke, either. Plus, I need to be in good shape for the World Cups to even qualify for the championships. This makes my taper much longer, less drastic, and punctuated with periods where I touch on base training when I can.
9. Know how and when to listen to your body
During a taper period it’s that much more important that you know when to back off and when to take on more. This takes learning. I remember doing a 4 x 1km workout the week of XC nationals in 2015 where I felt too good and let myself go too fast when I should’ve backed off. We had raced the previous weekend and I burned too many matches that day that I shouldn’t have. On the flip side you have the World Champion in biathlon this year (Sturla Holm Lagreid of Norway) who said he did 10 x 1 min all-out the day prior to the first post-Christmas World Cup because he struggling to “get the taste blood in his mouth”. He knew his body needed more priming before racing and ended up with a win and two more podiums that weekend. I took a page out of his book and did 6 x 1 min the day before my first race at World Champs (I was feeling really “flat” after a few days of rest and easy skiing leading into the championships). The following day I had one of my best ski races of the season.
10. Be flexible, be happy
Whereas you can afford to be a little more strict in your day-to-day base training, you can afford to be a little more go-with-the flow in your tapering. Don’t be afraid to back off. You’re not going to increase fitness at this point (remember- the goal is to minimize fatigue). If you feel like crap in your distance runs, shorten it up. No problem. Keep life outside of running relaxed, and don’t forget to laugh (Ryan emphasizes this in the podcast as well). Use the intensity sessions to hone your focus and practice mentally for the race, not your personal life.
Track is just around the corner this spring with road and trail racing soon to follow. Tuck these thoughts away for your next taper and enjoy your own personal experiment that is running. Stay curious!
