How do you approach tapering off for big races?

Question

Drew Wartenburg · Answer

How do you approach tapering off for big races? The process of tapering to a peak is something that involves both some physical and also mental psychological processes in terms of banking energy both mental and physical to get ready for a big effort a peak race. Peaking and tapering is probably most associated with the marathon distance or ultra marathoning which is not my expertise but you can also taper off training to a moderate degree for shorter races or especially for a championship type race that that might be significantly shorter than a marathon. Part of the process of tapering involves the the fundamental component of cutting back on the training load that can be both in terms of intensity and volume but depending on your event and your event emphasis it may also involve some extra or some added intensity as you sharpen to a peak for a faster or shorter track event. So in general you're going to want to look at training load, scale down over a period of maybe a week, ten days, two weeks and tapering and then peaking is also a very personal individualized process so it is something that evolves over time and learning best practices for a specific athlete.

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"How do you approach tapering off for big races?"