For dedicated, hardworking athletes, tapering is often one of the most difficult phases of a training schedule. Whereas most of the general population requires extreme acts of self-discipline to exercise, most runners need to be disciplined to rest.
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If you’ve trained hard for an event and want to give yourself the best chance of performing to your potential, it’s essential to taper your training in the days leading up to it. When you do decrease your training, you may feel hyper, tired, cranky, and “out of sorts.” With these sort of unpleasant feelings, you often start to worry that your fitness is slipping away. Fortunately, this isn’t the case. A few good studies have conclusively shown that tapering works.
Surprising results
Some of the tapering research has yielded some admittedly surprising results. In one study, training volume was reduced by 67% and fitness was preserved for up to 15 weeks. In another study with competitive swimmers, athletes who tapered their training by 68% for 15 days improved performances by 4% (that’s the equivalent of taking five minutes off the time of a two hour half-marathoner). Together, these studies show that fitness can be maintained, and even improved with a two-thirds reduction in volume for at least two weeks.
It’s clear that the key to improving fitness during a taper lies with keeping the intensity relatively high. Recent research suggests that the best way to maximise performance is to conduct a taper in which you actually increase the intensity slightly while drastically cutting the training volume.
One study utilised a tapering strategy in which subjects ran only 10% of their normal mileage in the week leading up to a 5 km time-trial, but all of it was in the form of intervals at 5 km race pace (not including brief warm-up and cool-down jogs). The greatest amount of running was done on the first day with a decreasing amount each subsequent day. The last day involved running a single 400 m run at 5 km race pace.
It is important to note that while the training was very little in terms of volume, the runners still trained every day. The results were spectacular compared to the control groups who only either trained normally or cut volume by half and ran easily all week.
How the runners improved
Runners improved 5 km time-trial times by approximately 30 seconds and all runners achieved personal best records. Laboratory measurements indicated that this taper increased blood volume, metabolic enzymes and glycogen levels. This type of taper probably also sharpens the neural system, as the brain and central system have lots of practice recruiting the muscles in the same manner as in a race without being fatigued.
Additionally, there may be a psychological edge, as this type of taper allows the individual to get a little practice running at race pace every day prior to the big race. Consequently, on race day it’s easier to be confident in your ability to run at the pace you rehearsed all week.
In summary, tapering is a training phase you need to be disciplined to use before any big competition if you want to run your best. While decreasing volume down to as low as 10-25% of normal training, intensity should be maintained, if not increased, in order to practice race pace and maximise physiological and psychological benefits.
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