𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 & 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 – 𝐓𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠
Tapering aims to achieve a controlled reduction in your training so that your body has time to recover from training fatigue without losing too much fitness.
It aims to deliver you to the start line with maximum fitness and ‘on fresh legs’.
It’s a balance. Start the taper too soon, and you’ll miss out on training; too late, you’ll arrive with tired or heavy legs.
𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫
Tapering uses two metrics:
✅ Your Stress Balance. As you approach your event, you can plan your workouts so that your Stress Balance becomes more positive.
✅ Your Ramp Rate. As you approach your event, you can plan your workouts so that your Ramp Rate becomes less positive.
Both metrics use planned numbers based on your upcoming workouts to ‘look ahead’ at the numbers that will be in place on the event date.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬?
This depends on the event duration (shorter events usually need a shorter taper) and how the event factors into your longer-term plans:
🎯 If it’s the event you’ve been training for, you might aim for a positive training balance and a negative ramp rate, ‘giving up’ some training leading up to the event.
🎯 If it’s an event you’re using to test fitness or race-day strategy, you might aim for a training balance around zero but maintain a positive ramp rate, scaling back your training but not giving up too much.
There are many other things you should also consider when tapering, but using your training load metrics provides a solid foundation.
𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?
