Watching social media I am not the only person having a break today. Based on a quick Facebook poll it looks like lots of people have started their taper for Ironman WA today.
It is a bit of a black art the old taper, just how long is long enough, what is too short, what is too long? What should you be doing on your taper?
I guess the tricky thing is that there isn't really a right answer since no two people are the same and no to race preps are the same.
I know I used to race best off a short taper. One week was about right for me, and even then it was usually a short week. Given that I tend to view anyone tapering for longer than a week with disdain. I often scoff whenever I hear of somebody tapering two weeks out from an even. However, that is overly simplistic of me as sometimes a longer taper is the right thing to do, and sometimes it depends on just what you mean by taper.
If you are training well and are not injured then I don't think there is any reason for a person to take on a two week taper for an Ironman. If you really lighten off training for two weeks then you are going to lose some hard fought fitness, plus the body simply does not need that long to recover. Plus with a two week taper there is a very real chance that the mind will start to go stale too. A week is enough to get most people fresh and is short enough that they don't start over thinking. So in my view a two week taper is not necessary, however, sometimes it is not as simple as that.
For example, I have a mate who is training for Ironman WA. He has done a massive block of work and is in really good form. Very fit, training very well. However, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that he is right on the edge. He has several niggles that are threatening to flare up. Mentally he is very fatigued and is just ready to get on with racing. Should he push on and get in another massive week of training before rolling into a one week taper. That was certainly the plan, but now that doesn't seem like the right thing to do. In fact forcing himself to do another big week of training may derail his entire preparation with an injury. Instead he is going to do a maintenance week to keep his fitness before starting his taper on the weekend. Does that mean he started his taper this week? Well if you define taper as a period of lighter training to help rest you up for a race, then yes, he did. However, he is still going to be training quite hard this week and so lots of people probably wouldn't view it as a taper. It depends a bit on your perspective. The point is though that he will reduce his training this week to help prepare for his race and sometimes that is just what an athlete needs. Applying that long taper to everyone is going to do some people a disservice, but sometimes it is the right thing to do.
At Front Runner we use TrainingPeaks to help us fine tune a taper. Usually we will use it to help plan a taper and then we will tweak it to make sure somebody is hitting race day in the right form and fitness. If somebody is very fatigued two weeks out from a race and TrainingPeaks is indicating that they need a 10 day taper, then that is what we will do, however, that is quite uncommon. Usually we will build the taper around one week of reduced volume and intensity to see where that gets us. Typically that is all an athletes needs to hit the right level of form, however, we remain flexible with it.
After all there isn't a single solution that fits everyone.
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