The taper for an ultra, week by week

The taper is the last part of the plan, and the one most often done wrong. Some runners keep training hard because resting feels like losing fitness; others stop almost completely and arrive flat. The research on tapering is clearer than on most training questions, and it points to a middle way: much less volume, a little intensity, and almost as many runs as before. Here is how that looks over the last three weeks before an ultra.

Why a taper works

Training builds fitness and fatigue at the same time. Fatigue fades within days to a couple of weeks; fitness fades over weeks to months. A taper uses that difference: by cutting the load for two to three weeks, fatigue drops a lot while fitness barely moves, and you arrive at the start fresher than you've been all season.

Reviews of the research across endurance sports agree on the main points: performance improves most when volume drops by about 40 to 60 % over around two weeks, intensity stays, and training frequency drops little. Cutting intensity, or stopping, tends to cost more than it saves.

Three weeks out: the last long run

This is the last week that still feels like training. Volume comes down to roughly three quarters of your biggest weeks. The key session is the last long run, early in the week or on the weekend: long enough to rehearse (3 to 4 hours for most 100 km races), in race kit, eating exactly what you'll eat on race day, on terrain like the race's. Not longer: a 6-hour run now adds fatigue you won't clear in time.

Keep one quality session, such as hill repeats or a steady climb at threshold effort, and keep strength work short and light: a maintenance session, no new exercises.

Two weeks out: cut volume, keep the sharpness

Volume drops to around 60 % of the peak. Shorten runs rather than removing them: if you ran five days a week, keep running four or five. The long run becomes 2 hours or so, easy. Keep a short session at race effort or a little above, for example 4 × 5 minutes climbing, so your legs remember what hard feels like.

This is often when doubts start: legs feel heavy, small aches appear, sleep is restless. That's normal. The body is repairing, and it often feels worse before it feels better.

Race week

Volume drops to about 40 to 50 % of the peak, not counting the race. A typical week for a Saturday race:

Shorter ultras (50 km) need a shorter taper: often 10 days to two weeks. Long ones (100 mile) benefit from the full three weeks. Our guide to planning an ultra-trail season shows where the taper sits in the whole season.

A shorter taper for B races

Not every race deserves three weeks of taper. For a B race, a race that matters but isn't the season's goal, a mini-taper keeps most of your training going:

• Make the week before the race an easier week: about 60 to 70 % of a normal week, with the long run replaced by the race itself.
• Keep one short session with a few efforts at race effort early in the week.
• Take two or three easy days after the race before training normally again; more after a long or very hilly one.

C races, run as hard training days, need no taper at all: treat them as a long run with a number on.

Food and sleep in the taper

Lower training means slightly lower energy needs, but the taper isn't the time to lose weight. Eat normally, keep protein up for repair, and don't be alarmed by a small gain on the scales in the last days: carbohydrate is stored with water, and that's fuel you'll use. Sleep is where most of the recovery happens, so give it priority: an extra half hour a night over the last two weeks does more than any recovery gadget.

What to look for in the numbers

If you follow your fitness, fatigue and form lines, fatigue should fall steadily through the taper while fitness slips only slightly, and form should climb to clearly positive by race day. Our guide to fitness, fatigue and form explains the numbers. Heart-rate variability often rises and resting heart rate falls in the last week, a sign the fatigue is clearing.

Race-week mistakes

• A last test. A "quick check" long run or hard climb in race week only adds fatigue. The fitness is already there.
• Anything new. New shoes, a new pack, a new gel, a new sports drink: race week is for the things you've already tested on long runs.
• Filling free time with activity. The hours you don't run aren't for long walks, gardening marathons or a hard gym session.
• Eating far less, or far more. You need a bit less food than in peak weeks, not a diet. In the last day or two, more carbohydrate (rice, pasta, bread, potatoes) and a little less fibre help many runners.
• Losing sleep to nerves. The night before the race often goes badly; the nights before it matter more. Bank sleep from the start of the week.
• Reading too much into the legs. Heavy or twitchy legs in taper are common and say nothing about race day.

If something goes wrong

A cold in the taper: rest until the symptoms above the neck ease, then run easy; don't try to make up the missed days. Fever or chest symptoms are a reason to see a doctor and reconsider the race. A small niggle: reduce running, keep moving gently, and get it checked if it doesn't settle within a few days. Missing a few taper sessions costs almost nothing; racing injured can cost a season.

Read next

• Fitness, fatigue and form (CTL, ATL, TSB) explained
• Eating on long runs: fuel per hour and training the gut

Sources

1. Bosquet L, Montpetit J, Arvisais D, Mujika I. Effects of tapering on performance: a meta-analysis. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2007; 39(8): 1358–1365.
2. Mujika I, Padilla S. Scientific bases for precompetition tapering strategies. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2003; 35(7): 1182–1187.