Taper Time

Taper Time

As we get closer to the end of the season, Jason Gootman and Will Kirousis have some suggestions on peaking for that last big race of the season.

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With the racing season nearing it’s end, many of you are tapering for your peak event. Those of you racing an Ironman may be racing at Ironman Florida or the big kahuna itself, the Ford Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. For most folks the last few weeks heading into a peak race are thought of as a taper. What this means to each person seems a little different, and there is certainly no shortage of ideas related to how you should execute your taper. An approach firmly focused on deep rest is one that will most likely work really well for you. 

 

Taper Defined

A taper is a period of time in which you reduce your training load before a peak race. By reducing your training load for a period of time, you allow yourself to rest before your race. This allows you to store up physical, mental, and emotional energy over a period of a few weeks, allowing you to “unleash” your maximum potential on race day. If you were to skip the taper, you would carry with you, into your peak race, some residual training fatigue, and you would not be able to race your best. 

 

To make tapering a distinct part of our athletes training, we devote an entire phase, called the taper phase, that is generally set up as a three-week period of time leading into an athlete’s peak race(s). 

 

A Suggested Taper Approach

We have found that an approach deeply founded in creating substantial rest works very well. 

 

·         Give yourself three weeks. Three weeks allows you time to really rest and fosters a deep recovery from your recent months of training. This allows for a tremendous build-up of the physical, mental, and emotional that energy you need to perform your best.

·         During the first and second week, set up your training based on your final week of training before your taper. Eliminate all anaerobic training, and cut your training volume in half. These weeks should feel very easy and light. In the early going, you may feel a bit sluggish as your body adjusts to the increased rest. As your body adjusts, you will start to feel very well-rested, very strong, and really eager to do some hard training or to race. 

·         During these weeks, your workouts should be performed in your aerobic endurance training zone and should include speed drills that you have performed during the year.

·         During the third and final week (race week), we suggest one final workout, similar to the ones you have performed in your first two weeks of tapering, in each discipline, a few rest days, and an easy, loosening-up workout the day before your race. For example, take rest days on Monday and Friday.  Run on Tuesday, ride on Wednesday, and swim on Thursday.  Do a VERY short swim or ride on Saturday to loosen-up.  Race on Sunday. 

·         Finally, have a GREAT race!

·         Do not taper for all races, only for your peak races. If you were to taper more than a few times per year, you would actually be resting too much and would shunt your overall development.

 

Why This Approach Works Well

This approach works so well because it creates a deep rest that many athletes never feel when in hard training. On race day they find reserves of energy they never knew they had. 

 

·         Physical rest. Training is all about stressing your body and then allowing you to recover and grow stronger from that stress. Cutting your training load dramatically allows your body to accomplish many processes of repair and regeneration, at a really deep level, that regular, hard training mitigates. The result is the strongest, physical you on race day! 

·         Mental and emotional rest. Regular hard training is demanding. It requires a high level of mental focus and emotional output. Day in and day out, you are training hard. This hard training can take it’s toll, leaving you a bit tired, cranky, or even timid. Reducing your training load substantially allows your mind and heart an ability to build itself back up to peak levels. It allows you to be mentally sharp and emotionally gutsy on race day. 

·         Maintenance of your abilities. You will not loose fitness through this type of taper. With the short workouts you are doing, you are doing enough training to maintain your triathlon fitness and feel.  Physiologically, you could do nothing for a few weeks, and you would lose very little fitness.  Countless studies and numerous examples from world-class and age-group athletes who have been forced to rest for several weeks show no loss in abilities, and often lifetime peak performances.   And let’s face it, if you have been swimming, riding, and running for months or years, you will not “forget” how to swim, ride, or run well even if you did nothing for a few weeks. With the short workouts, you more than adequately maintain your abilities.   

 

Your peak races are special. They are races that you have prepared yourself for over several months.  You have worked intelligently and really aimed to get yourself as strong as possible so you can enjoy racing to your potential in your peak race. By tapering well, with an approach firmly rooted in creating deep rest for yourself, you put the finishing touches on to race your best on race day! 

 

Jason Gootman MS, CSCS and Will Kirousis BS, CSCS coach triathletes and other endurance athletes through their company Tri-Hard (www.tri-hard.com). Jason and Will can be reached with questions or comments at jason@tri-hard.com and will@tri-hard.com respectively.