How to Taper Efficiently and Why Triathletes Do It

It’s 3:30am as your alarm goes off on race morning, and you aren’t entirely sure if you slept an hour straight through. Your mind was active during the night, imagining the transition area, lining up to the swim start, visualizing the turns on the bike, and feeling the excitement of the finish line. Yet despite the lack of sleep – it’s to be expected, after all – you feel fresh, strong, and fully prepared to race.

This is a huge reason why we taper! Tapering is a crucial phase in triathlon training that enhances race performance and helps you peak at the right time. As I’m writing this, I am in my taper for Eagleman 70.3, which will be just 5 days away when I post this.  My goal is for you to understand tapering, why it’s so important, some things you can expect, and how to implement it into your training program

As always, you are an individual.  Below are general guidelines, but your volume leading up to your race, the distance of the race you are training for, your personal goals, fitness, and lifestyle all come into play.  

UNDERSTANDING THE TAPER

Tapering involves strategically reducing training volume while maintaining intensity to allow the body to recover and perform optimally.  The goal is to reduce fatigue, enhance muscle repair, and boost mental readiness.

The science behind the taper

When you taper, the purpose is both physiological and psychological.  A lot of preparation goes into the weeks and months leading up to race day.  And if you’ve been training for a half or full distance ironman, your volume has been HIGH!  This impacts your recovery, glycogen stores, mental fatigue, and more.

When we look at the physiological side of things, tapering will help you to improve your glycogen stores, enhance muscle repair and strength, and reduce fatigue and inflammation.  From a psychological standpoint, this phase will allow you to increase confidence and reduce stress, as well as offer mental freshness and readiness.

Tapering Strategies for Triathlon

The first thing to consider is the duration.  How long do you want your taper to last? This is dependent upon multiple factors.  Typically 1-3 weeks is ideal, depending on the length and intensity of the race.  A sweet spot for most is a taper timeframe between 10-14 days.  The race distance, the priority of the race, individual preferences, and responses to training adjustments all come into play.  

As a general guideline, for Sprint and Olympic distances, you will want to allow for 1-2 weeks.  When it comes to Half-Ironman and Ironman distances, 2-3 weeks is a more common practice.

Training adjustments should be made with regard to volume, intensity, and frequency.  A gradual reduction of training volume by 20-50% can be expected over the course of your taper and race day.  Again, this is athlete-dependent and may require some experimentation or practice.  When it comes to the intensity of your training sessions, keep some high-intensity workouts, but again reduce your volume. Lastly, slightly reduce your training frequency while keeping in key workouts.  

The goal during your taper is not to increase fitness, but to maintain it while you recover so you can see a peak in your performance on race day. 

Example Week-by-Week Tapering Plan

• Three Weeks Out:
  • Maintain regular training intensity.
  • Begin reducing overall training volume by 20-30%.
  • Focus on maintaining swim, bike, and run sessions with slightly reduced distances.
• Two Weeks Out:
  • Further reduce training volume by 30-40%.
  • Incorporate race-specific workouts at reduced distances.
  • Begin to increase rest and recovery periods.
• Race Week:
  • Cut training volume by 50-60%.
  • Include short, race-paced workouts.
  • Focus on rest, nutrition, and mental preparation.

A general recommendation you can consider starting with is reducing training volume by 20-25% two weeks out and then another 20-25% reduction during that final week before race day.  

Nutrition and Recovery During A Taper

Nutrition is often referred to as the fourth discipline of triathlon.  It plays a crucial role in both performance and recovery.  On race day, you will be putting your body through a high volume of stress over an extended period of time.  You want to make sure you are somewhat over-fueled for this so your body has energy stores to pull from.  Here are some things to consider:

• Hydration: Increase (or maintain) water intake to stay well-hydrated.  Electrolytes are important here, as well, depending on your own physiology, along with the weather conditions you are training and racing in.
• Carbohydrate Loading: Gradually increase carbohydrate intake to maximize glycogen stores.  Typically 2-3 days out is a good time to start increasing your carbs.  As your training volume decreases, your calorie expenditure does as well.  We don’t typically need more than three days to top off our stores and create a little surplus.   
• Sleep and Rest: Prioritize sleep and incorporate relaxation techniques to reduce stress.
• Consider omitting foods that have the potential to cause GI distress.  Personally, I cut back on cruciferous veggies, beans, high fat foods and dairy in the days leading up to my race.  I keep my food as simple as possible to avoid any unnecessary issues.

For more information on nutrient timing during training and racing, check out this post!

Common Tapering Mistakes to Avoid

• Overtraining: Resist the urge to add extra workouts.
• Undertraining: Avoid becoming too sedentary; light, consistent activity is key.
• Poor Nutrition: Maintain a balanced diet and avoid excessive junk food. While you are carbing up, still be mindful of those choices
• Neglecting Mental Preparation: Use visualization and positive affirmations to stay mentally sharp.  Also take time to mentally work through situations that you are concerned about and how you plan to handle them, should they arise.

Listening to Your Body

Our bodies tell us a lot. Learn to listen to the whispers and do not ignore the yells. If you want to participate in triathlon for many years to come, constantly training through injuries or an unwillingness to adjust and adapt your program will not support long-term racing.

Be ready to make minor adjustments based on how your body feels. If you are unsure of planning, periodizing, and tapering for your program, consider consulting with a coach for a personalized plan. 

Uh-oh…Why Do I Feel Worse During My Taper?

When I tapered for my first 70.3, it was a different experience compared to Sprint and Olympic distances.  While some things were the same – decreased load, increased carbs, hydration, making sure sleep was on point – the way my body responded about 1-2 weeks out was not the same.  

If you wear a Whoop or other monitor, you may be super dialed into your resting heart rate, heart rate variability, stress levels, and sleep.  This can be extremely valuable information as you track your progress and avoid overtraining.  However, it can sometimes add unwanted mental stress.  This absolutely happens to me as I approach race week and race morning.

I learned that it is not uncommon to have some unpleasant symptoms during the taper, especially after extended periods of intense training.  As a Whoop wearer, I was freaking out during my taper because I did not hit a green recovery once in the seven days leading up to my race.  I started to notice pains that I wasn’t sure were there before.  I questioned my fitness; I was unsure of my mindset…I had a few moments of unnecessary stress.

Here are a few things you may experience that are totally normal!

Emotionally, you may feel off.  Your training volume has dropped which means that feel-good rush after a strong workout is not there.  This absolutely affects your mental state.  Your body is also recovering from months of training HARD – trust the process and know that you will be ready on race day.  Plus, when you have a big race just a few days away, your stress and sleep patterns may be off. Not saying that all pains and niggles are psychosomatic at this point, but if you’ve made it this far feeling strong, don’t start seeking out issues.      

FINAL THOUGHTS

Enjoy the process and trust it!  

Once you reach those final weeks in your training, the hard part is done.  Let your body absorb the work that you have put in, allow recovery to take place, and get your mind ready to race.  It’s a great time to practice visualization and mentally prepare.  You can also take this time to scope out restaurants nearby and plan your post-race celebrations.  You’ve earned it, so take it all in and line up on race day with grit and gratitude.

As always, if you’d like to learn more about my coaching services or to chat about any questions you have around training, nutrition, and mindset, shoot me a message.  I love hearing from you!

It’s your journey.  It’s your pace.  And all my support.