Most runners and cyclists get the taper wrong. Here's what to do instead.
- Emma O'Toole
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
Many runners and cyclists feel uncomfortable during a taper, often worrying they are losing fitness as training volume decreases before an event. In reality, a taper is a critical phase where the body absorbs training adaptations, restores energy stores, and prepares for peak performance. This article explains what a taper is, why it works, common mistakes endurance athletes make, and how to structure both endurance and strength training in the weeks leading into a race. Emma O’Toole outlines how to approach the taper with confidence so you arrive at the start line feeling sharp rather than fatigued.
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TRAINING BREAKDOWN
"You are not losing fitness during the taper, you are absorbing it."
By Emma O'Toole
Hi there!
You know that feeling when your training plan tells you to run less, or ride less, and everything in you says that cannot be right?
Your legs feel restless. Your mind starts negotiating. You find yourself refreshing your training log, wondering if you have done enough. A niggle appears from nowhere and suddenly you are convinced you have picked up an injury three weeks out from the biggest race of your year. You feel flat, sluggish, and not remotely like someone who is about to race.
Welcome to the taper. Yep, it’s that time of year again for many runners and cyclists with Spring races and events around the corner.
And I want to reassure you: this is normal!
I have coached hundreds of runners and cyclists through tapers and the conversation is almost always the same.
The training has gone well… the fitness is there… and then the taper begins and within days the doubt creeps in. The urge to do more is almost overwhelming.
That urge is not your body telling you that you need more training. It is a normal response to training less, your body adapting to the training that you have done and preparing you for race/event day.
What the taper is
The taper is a planned, progressive reduction in training volume in the weeks before your race or event. It is not a reward for finishing your training block; it is a critical part of the training block itself.
Here is what is happening physiologically during a well executed taper:
Muscle glycogen stores replenish.
Muscle damage from weeks of training repairs.
The nervous system recovers.
Hormonal markers of fatigue normalise.
And crucially, the fitness adaptations from your hardest training weeks, the ones your body did not have time to fully absorb during the block, have the space to take place.
You are not losing fitness during the taper, you are absorbing it.
How to taper
The principle is straightforward: reduce volume, maintain intensity.
Your easy runs or rides get shorter. Your long run or long ride gets shorter. But your quality sessions, tempo efforts, strides, intervals, stay in the plan at the same effort level, just in a smaller dose.
What you are not doing is adding more intensity to compensate for the reduced volume. That is one of the most common taper mistakes and it defeats the purpose entirely.
The general framework for a three week taper looks like this:
3 weeks out: Reduce volume by around 25 percent.
2 weeks out: Reduce by 40 to 50 percent.
Race/Event week: drop to around 25 to 30 percent of your normal load, with the focus entirely on feeling sharp and ready.
This framework applies to both runners and cyclists: the sport changes, the principle does not.
And if you are training for a longer event, eg. an audax or an ultra marathon, again this will look different, particularly the intensity distribution.
One important point on race week: keep the same training days rather than cutting sessions entirely and cramming your reduced miles or hours into fewer sessions.
Your body has adapted to the rhythm of your training week. So aim to keep the structure, but reduce the duration of each session.
The numbers below are specific to marathon running and the target of this particular runner.
A note on the intensity here- we are maintaining intensity at a reduced volume, for example a 30 minute tempo run may become 2x 10 minute tempo intervals 2 weeks out.
Where most runners and cyclists go wrong
They either pull back too much or not enough.
Think of the taper like Goldilocks: You do not want it too hot with too much intensity and volume. But you also do not want it too cold either, too little intensity and barely any training volume. The taper that works is the one that sits right in the middle.
The other common mistake is adding in extra rest days and cramming the week's miles or hours into fewer sessions. The consistency of your training rhythm matters. Think same days, shorter sessions, intensity kept in but in smaller doses.
It is also worth tracking how you feel throughout your taper weeks. Your body's response to the reduction is useful information. Note what leaves you feeling sharp and what leaves you feeling flat. That is data you can carry into your next training block.
Strength training in the taper
This is the section most runners and cyclists either skip or get wrong, so I want to give it the time it deserves.
The principle is exactly the same as your endurance training: reduce volume, maintain
intensity.
Volume in strength training is the number of sets and reps you complete. That is what accumulates fatigue. Volume, not load, is the primary driver of fatigue in strength training.
In the lead up to a key race or event, strength training is about the expression of power, (power = force x velocity).
Your sessions act as neural primers. You are lifting with focus and deliberate speed of movement, reminding your nervous system how to express force. The load will be less than your maximum but that is not the point. The point is to arrive at the start line with a nervous system that is awake, primed, and ready to produce power when you need it.
Move with intent. Leave feeling sharp, not tired.
If you are usually doing two sessions a week, begin reducing the volume of those sessions two to three weeks out from your race. In race week, drop to a single session, ideally four to five days before race day.
And do not stop strength training entirely in the weeks before your race. This is the most common mistake. Stopping completely removes the neuromuscular stimulus your body has been responding to throughout your training block. You will arrive at the start line feeling flat rather than sharp.
One final rule: do not introduce anything new. Familiar exercises or variations of those, eg. push squats to partial squats, reduced volume, maintained intent. That is all race week strength training needs to be.
If you would like an example strength taper guide showing how to reduce your exercise pairings across the taper period, get in touch here with the word TAPER and I will send it over to you.
The taper can feel like you are doing something wrong.
You are not.
You are doing one of the most important things: allowing your body to fully absorb the work you have spent months building.
Trust what you have done. And when the doubt creeps in, remind yourself that the taper feeling wrong is usually a sign that the training has been hard enough to need it.
Embrace the taper, your body knows what to do. Now let it do it.
If you are tapering right now and want to be around other runners and cyclists going through exactly the same thing, come and join us in the free coaching community. There are over 780 members and this time of year the taper conversations are some of the most honest and reassuring threads we have.
You do not have to go through the taper madness alone!
Happy running and riding!
Emma x
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