How you put together your program in the last week or two leading up to a big race, otherwise known as tapering for an event, is an important consideration.
As is usually the case with sports performance, there is a large individual component to what works best and different strategies work differently for different athletes. There are some general guiding principles though for planning a good taper. It also then requires a little bit of practice as well as some trial and error to fine tune what works best for you. The overriding goal of any good taper should be to freshen up physically and mentally, and replenish rather than fatigue.
So what does this mean specifically for our training in race week? Again, it depends on whether your normal training load is 30hr/ week or 10hr/ week but generally speaking, our total training load decreases by anywhere between 20-50%. I would also put a cap on the intensities that I hit in the week leading up to the race. High intensity training can fatigue you as much, if not more than high volume. So for me, no max efforts or VO2 work but some shorter intervals right at whatever my target effort level or intensity is for the race I am doing, with longer than normal periods of recovery. The idea here is to prime our heart and lungs for the big race ahead but shutdown the engine before you create any long lasting or residual fatigue. You also want the muscles to fire and keep the neuro-muscular pathways open and efficient. It is important to remember that there are little to no actual fitness gains that can come in the last 7 days before a race without residual fatigue that will negatively impact your performance. The hay is already in the barn as they say.
Freshen up physically but also sharpen up mentally, using race visualisations, mental cues and strategies to tackle any scenario on race day, good or bad.
Good luck,
Crowie
