Tapering for goal events

Why should you taper?

Good training programs leverage the concept of progressive overload. The demands on the athlete ramp up for a period of time (a few weeks) and briefly ramp back down to allow for recovery and adaptation. But in the final weeks leading up to a key event, there won't be time to recover from and adapt to large amounts of volume or increased intensity. By cramming volume and intensity into the final couple weeks of training, we're fatiguing ourselves for no benefit on race day. Tapering, done right, ensures that we're reducing fatigue and increasing freshness without detraining or losing sharpness¹.

During a taper, a period generally lasting 1 to 3 weeks prior to an A event, we cut back on total volume while maintaining race-specific intensity. Tapers in this range, especially 8–14 days, have been shown to improve race performance and time-trial outcomes¹. By doing so, we can enjoy several benefits that will be important on race day:

• Improved mood²
• Lowered perceived effort²
• Decreased stress²
• Improved sleep quality²

These benefits are of particular importance when you consider the demands of endurance events like Leadville or Unbound. Athletes often travel long distances in the days or weeks leading up to these events and live and sleep in unfamiliar settings prior to race day. Plus, there is a lot of other work to do prior to the event: getting equipment dialed in, fine-tuning the race day nutrition strategy, pre-riding the course – the list goes on. Anxiety and stress are natural responses during the final build-up to key events, and tapering also serves as a pressure release valve during this period of time².

How to plan your taper

The goal of tapering is to reduce fatigue and improve freshness while keeping detraining to a minimum¹. All of the valuable training is done and now we're focused on maximizing potential on race day.

Tapers lasting in duration from 7 days all the way to 21 days have been shown to improve race performance¹. So what is the right strategy for particular athletes? This hinges on a few factors:

• Amount of fatigue carried into the taper
• Length of the training program
• Recent training volume
• Athlete experience level

Experienced athletes doing high-volume training will likely benefit from a longer taper. Newer athletes doing less training volume may find that shorter tapers will suffice. This aligns with evidence showing that even ≤7 day tapers can still be effective, while 8–14 days generally produce the largest performance gains¹. This makes sense given the goal of tapering. The amount of fatigue an athlete is carrying into the taper should influence the length of that taper.

Examples:

• Athlete A has spent the last 3 months training for a 50 mile gravel race and has peaked at 8 hours of weekly training volume. Tapering for 7–10 days will likely work well for this athlete¹.
• Athlete B has spent the past 9 months training for Leadville, a 100+ mile MTB race, and has stacked several weeks of 15+ hours of training. A 2+ week gradual taper might be optimal¹.

Now that we've approximated the length of tapers, what type of training should we be doing? Recall that we want to decrease fatigue without detraining. Research shows that the most effective tapers reduce total volume by about 41–60 percent while maintaining intensity and frequency¹. An athlete doing hard intervals twice a week and a long endurance ride on the weekend should continue to do interval sessions (perhaps of slightly shorter durations) but should decrease the length of their endurance rides. Interval sessions might scale back from 5×5' at 120 percent of FTP to 4×3' at 120 percent. Instead of 4–6 hours in zone 2, do 2–3 hours. These changes substantially decrease total training volume, giving the athlete more time to recover. Since we're still spending time in high-intensity zones, overall fitness and performance should be maintained¹.

The first week of a taper might see a 20–25 percent reduction in both volume and training stress and the second week might see an additional 20–25 percent reduction, which lands within the evidence-supported 41–60 percent reduction range¹. That means race week might have half of the training volume of prior weeks.

A good taper lets you shed fatigue without losing the fitness you've built. By cutting volume, keeping key intensity, and choosing a taper length that matches your recent training load, you put yourself in the best position to show up rested, sharp, and ready to execute on race day.