How to Taper, What to Do the Week Before a Race

I go into the science on tapering. What should the week leading up to a race look like, how long should your taper be, and should you reduce volume or intensity? What does the science have to say about tapering? Be sure to like and subscribe!

Leave your question in the comments and it could be featured in the next episode of DJQ&A.

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The studies I used in this video:

The views and opinions expressed in this video are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Carmichael Training Systems, Inc, their sponsors, and/or partners.

[CryWolfFilms]

watching this video after wrecking my self with intervals a few days before the event. pray for me

[RGCastro]

Super useful information, Dylan. Thank you for your time and effort.

[HaIIowsxeve]

Great video Dylan. Recently subscribed to your channel. Love the content that you produce and the sourced information through case studies to reinforce it!

[prise]

Great video man! Thanks! Keep up the good work!

[wackery_zeimer]

Thanks for the video – the examples you provide for different taper weeks are super helpful!

[stefanobaldari]

65km race on gravel and I had so much power on the 1/3 part of the race that I could ride up many positions 👍🏻 The tapering as you described worked perfectly. Thanks
Now tapering again for next race A in 2 weeks. 100km this time 30% gravel 70% mountain single track terrain

[youssefj]

Tanks Dylan these videos are well needed. Maybe you know Jeff Nippard, he does science based body building videos and his editing is just superb. I know it is time consumming but that might help your channel reach an even larger audience and hopefully get you the followers your great content deserves !

[JonFairhurst]

Great video!

As a Masters swimmer, our coach would have us taper for a week. We’d do some sprints and easy intervals and cut workout times in half. The idea was to let muscles recover, but to keep the mental and neurological aspects sharp. The high intensity stuff helps us feel that “fast is normal”, and the low intensity stuff makes sure that we feel good in the water. Taking the whole week off could make us feel awkward in the water, and going too hard can leave us fatigued. For race day warmup, we’d swim at least 800m with some “burnouts” thrown in to wake up the fast twitch muscles, but not so long as to dull the edge.

The other thing we practice during the taper and in the warmup is diving starts. Practicing bike starts that week could be good practice for finding the best gearing strategy.

I don’t race, but I’ll ride the 200+ mile Seattle to Portland event this year. It’s flat, so the only over threshold riding I’ll do is when catching a group for drafting. I plan to taper for 7-10 days with some intervals and some very easy rides with low volume for each. The intervals won’t be max efforts, as I won’t be doing sprints for a one-day STP ride. The active taper will be about keeping my head in the game, rather than training.

The other aspect will be personal health. Hydration, vitamins, good diet, and carb loading at the end will help, as will lots of stretching.

Important topic, and as usual, great video. Love the free socks and carbon wheels bit!

[carlosgomezzzzzzz]

Thank you very much for this video! Im racing a stage race next week, 300k 8000m... I wasn't aware of the keeping the intensity thing, last year I reduced both intensity and volume and exaggerated on the nutrition, by the time the race came I had a noticeable belly that went away by day 3, I think Im doing it better this time

[hualingyu]

OMG I love how you cite the papers and references instead of just talking non evidence based stuff!!

[Aboycostelo]

Thanks for the video. I'm planning to do my first long journey on my bike, by traveling about 500km. This video helps a lot!

[rebeccaedwards]

My race is in exactly one week. I already overloaded my training so now I'm looking at a one week taper with mindset training and carb loading at the last 3 days before we race Sunday.
Although I only race 2 events a year, this particular race is an A event as we haven't hosted a race at our trails in 4 years and is very important to me

[stefanobaldari]

I am tapering for 2 races type A in August with 2 weeks for each race. I have had a 2 months high intensity training in June-July and try now to maximize it and crush these races. Let's see how your 2 weeks plan working ;)

[cypriano]

"arent quite as strong as we think we are", nailed it

[wesfree]

Good stuff, Dylan - thanks! There seems to be an increasing body of science to support calibrating taper using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in conjunction with other metrics (especially resting HR). One of your cited studies (in another VID) made reference to HRV recovery metrics, but you sorta' skimmed over that aspect, focusing instead on recovery of the autonomous nervous system (ANS). I subscribe to the notion that taper duration etc must be tailored to the individual - which would support the parallel notion that using a hard-metric such as HRV would be an excellent method for making such determination. I acknowledge that HRV is a "noisy" signal, but there are good methods for eliminating that noisy signal data, and using HRV to signal optimum taper and event readiness. Why don't you consider addressing how to use HRV in conjunction with training plans to optimize adaptational benefits, and avoid over-reach and over-training? @wesfree

[glenngoysens]

Hi Dylan, I watched this video again yesterday, hope you still respond to older videos. You mention in the video the destinction between tapering after training overloading versus tapering after "not training overloading". I was wondering how tapering would change if you start it after a rest week, because that is what I usually do. Should I for example decrease volume less than the recommended 50%in this case?

[daisydela]

Another great video. I always appreciate the review of research in all your videos. Curious on how you’d apply taper principles for a multi-day stage race. (In my case a 350 mile gravel stage race over 5-days). Seems a bit trickier to maintain fitness for 3-6 hours a day on the bike for a several day event. Too long a taper and you may lose endurance. Too short and you may go in with burnt legs.

[fastleopard]

Another great video. I like the segments where the guy turns his cap around and then gives moronic suggestions. I personally prefer to taper very little as my body tends to shut down if I'm not training regularly

[allent]

Great Info, I have a question how about stage races ??

[trbeyond]

Another great video on a complicated topic. Did you come across any studies on using a reverse taper? I’ve had good success with this method for my bigger races. Helps me make sure I’m fresh but not flat.