It's Taper Week
Time to rest, recover and rebuild.
This weekend I will be running the Santa Rosa Marathon. I signed up for this race as a last chance opportunity to qualify for the Boston Marathon to be able to run it next year in the year I turn 50.
I wrote more about the goal, why it’s important to me, and what it takes to qualify for Boston in a previous article.
Now, the work to prepare for this race is done and we enter what is known as “taper week”. I thought it would be useful for you to hear about this concept if you aren’t familiar with it, and if you are familiar with it, perhaps you might gain some new insights or perspectives for your next event. Writing this article will also be useful for me, to solidify the importance of taper week and to create my own intentions going in.
What is taper week?
Taper week is the week leading up to a big athletic event. It’s a time when you intentionally decrease your volume of exercise so that all of the previous work can have a chance to settle in. During taper week your body gets to rest more than usual, to recover from built up fatigue or minor aches or pains and to rebuild the muscles and the overall energy levels.
Taper week is a time to rest, recover and rebuild.
What do you do during taper week?
It's crucial to understand that taper week is not about complete inactivity. Rather, it serves three primary purposes:
Physical recovery: Allowing our bodies to repair and strengthen
Energy restoration: Replenishing our depleted reserves
Mental preparation: Sharpening our focus for the challenge ahead
By balancing these elements, we position ourselves to arrive at the starting line feeling refreshed, energized, and prepared to perform at our peak.
If you can line up your training and your taper well, you might be able to perform to your maximum capacity - often at a level that is even higher than you’ve been able to perform at in training. There is an art and a science to planning training load and the taper to optimize performance.
And just like anything else, it is highly individual. Some people do well with very little exercise during taper week. Other people need to keep a good amount of volume in place, but minimize the overall intensity. This is where having a coach that you work with over a long period of time is helpful because they get to know what works best for you and your body.
Generally, there will still be movement on most days, but very limited intensity. I will have short bursts of intensity to remind my body what it feels like, but you keep it short enough that there isn’t any extra stress on the body.
The goal is to get to race day ready to go. When everything lines up, you are “itching” to race. You feel like you have a lot of energy, you’ve just barely tapped into it during the week and you want to see what you can do. To give a food analogy - it’s like you’re at the gelato place and you’ve tasted a flavor you really like, and now you are ready for a full scoop.
What do you eat during taper week?
Speaking of food and ice cream - you might be wondering how diet changes during taper week. Early in the week there aren’t many changes. In fact, you want to eat foods that you are very familiar with. This isn’t the time to be experimenting with new foods or trying new restaurants (unless you are traveling and have no other choice - still - stick with what your body knows how to digest.)
Several days before the race many people start the “carb load”. I won’t go into too many details on this because there are different approaches and I do not claim to be an expert on this topic. However, the idea is that you increase your overall intake of carbohydrates so that your muscles are topped off with glycogen and fully replenished. This also helps with the goal of showing up with a full tank of gas and ready to go.
It’s helpful to practice this carb loading before race week during your long runs in training.
For those of you looking to deepen your understanding of carb loading for endurance athletes, I highly recommend this article by Alex Larson. Her expertise can help guide you through this important aspect of race preparation. She also has a ton of free resources for endurance sports nutrition (and a great Instagram account!).
What are the common mistakes during taper week?
Taper week can present unique challenges. They are completely normal, but often catch people off guard. If you are new to this concept, or new to doing events, these might surprise you. Even if you’ve been doing events for over 20 years like I have, many things arise during taper week that it’s great to be aware of:
Filling your free time with other stressful activities. Training volume decreases which creates more time in your schedule. Many people fill this time with other things they’ve been avoiding during high training. This just adds more stress to the body and doesn’t allow you to rest, recover and rebuild.
Worrying about every ache and niggle. For some reason, the body often feels pretty yucky during taper week. It’s not uncommon to have random aches and pains emerge. My understanding is that it’s your body’s way of healing and rebuilding and generally isn’t a problem. What is a problem is stressing out about it!
Not eating enough. We might be tempted to significantly decrease our eating as our exercise volume drops, but this can lead us to enter race weekend under fueled. It’s important to remember that our bodies still need proper nourishment during this time. You want to start the carb load with a well fueled body, not an under fueled body. This can lead to binging during race week (I’ve done this many times) which brings its own set of physical and emotional concerns.
Worrying about things you can’t control. There can be a lot of anxiety during race week, and without the exercise to help drain that excess energy, the anxiety will want to go somewhere. Common things outside of your control that people worry about are the weather, how they will feel on race day, if they will be able to hit a goal time, and how they will perform compared to other people who are there. With weather - always have a plan and bring options because the weather can change by the time you get there. For the other items - remind yourself that worrying about them won’t make anything better. Put your focus on rest, recover, and rebuild so that you have the best chance for performance on race day.
What is my focus during taper week?
This week I am experimenting with something different as it relates to taper week. I am looking at my entire week as a taper. Not just in terms of exercise. I want to make sure that this whole week is about resting, recovering and rebuilding.
This means making sure I have time for short naps if I want them, only focusing on the current priorities, and actively choosing short and intentional bursts of effort with the goal of arriving on Sunday morning feeling ready to go.
In the past I’ve lived my usual life around taper. I have done every single one of the mistakes listed above. I had fear of gaining weight, I’ve binged in the days leading up to a race (including a couple of significant binges the day before), I’ve worried about things I can’t control and I’ve filled the excess space in my calendar with lots of other things.
It was all rooted in trying to control my weight, not trusting myself with food, and not honoring my body’s signals and need for rest. This week I’m trying something new, a more peaceful and trusting approach to the process. I’m also thinking about setting myself up for success for when I get home and I know I’ll be tired.
I’m thinking about my future self on Sunday at the race and my future self early next week who will be tired and in need of more rest. I want to support her in the best ways I can.
How can peaceful eating apply to taper week?
There are many approaches that I teach that are so applicable to taper week as it relates to becoming a peaceful eater:
Trusting your body's signals
Letting go of rigid control
Practicing self-compassion
Focusing on nourishment rather than restriction
Developing a peaceful relationship with food and your body can enhance not just taper week, but overall athletic performance and enjoyment. It can also enhance any aspect of life and any goal that you are working towards.
What are your thoughts about taper week?
Do you have any questions about taper week? Or if you are an athlete, what are your best tips, strategies or recommendations for taper week?
Or perhaps, do you have a taper week story that you’d like to share? I always love hearing about others experiences.
Let’s connect in the comments!
PS - If you are curious about how I’m feeling about the marathon and what I’ve learned in this training cycle, be sure to check out this week’s podcast episode where I share all about it!
If you would like to receive weekly insights on developing a more peaceful relationship with food, along with inspiration from my own athletics and adventures, be sure to subscribe to The Peaceful Eater.
Do you have any questions about taper week? Or if you are an athlete, what are your best tips, strategies or recommendations for taper week?
Enjoy your taper week, Jane! And happy racing! Have so much fun!