Taper Recommendations and Thoughts to Consider

Some taper recommendations and thoughts to consider:

Glycogen bounces back 4-6 days after a peak session. Ironman people often taper too long by not doing a moderately long session 4-6 days before the key race.

The shorter harder events you need more freshness. Longer the events you carry more fitness in rather than freshness.

Reduce load approximately 40-60%- some tend to reduce too much and fall flat race day.

Maintain frequency of pre taper load at >= 80%

Consider a higher volume session 4-6 days before the event.

Consider travel in your taper plan. How does travel affect you. How long is your travel.

A lot of athletes feel bad in taper and learn that they will have a great race with practice. Some athletes struggle to manage their emotions and this stress impacts the overall fatigue.

Caution athletes not to ramp up their energy in the other areas of their lives.

Athletes get too obsessed with the one thing that will make or break their race.