I’m about to run a big half marathon. The race is in three days. As an experienced runner, you might think I’m getting some of my most important training and workouts this week.
But that’s wrong. This is the easiest week of training I’ve had in a long time. I had several weeks where I almost ran 80 miles. This week, however, I’ve taken two weeks off, barely run six miles, and ran less than an hour on most days.
I’m taking my training easier than ever not despite the big performance coming up, but because I have a big race coming up.
In running, this term is called the taper — reducing mileage and training intensity the week before the race. For some type-A runners, this is very difficult since some runners worry about losing fitness, but the week before a big running race, the wide consensus in the running community is you won’t gain any fitness.
The money is already in the bank. More effort than you usually give will usually hurt you, not help you.
What makes a good taper, and why should you do it?
According to Susan Paul at Runner’s World, tapering is absolutely essential for optimal performance. Studies show a proper taper improves performance by 3%, which is essential because it allows muscle glycogen stores to return to peak levels. Hormones, metabolic enzymes, and antioxidants also replenish to optimal ranges. Muscles repair themselves, as does the immune system.
Scientifically, physiological adaptations usually take at least six weeks to take effect. Usually, peak performance comes from doing less, right before the big event. The taper usually begins two to four weeks leading up to the big event, and the longer the goal race, the longer the taper. Usually, the taper means cutting mileage 20 to 30 percent from the highest volume week, each week before the break.
Other activities to supplement running, including body weight training and cross training, should also be cut back right before the event.
Personally, I love tapering. I juggle a lot of hats outside of running, including being a special education teacher in the inner city, a Master’s student, a writer, and editor. Next year, I will also be a law student.
During this taper period, I can attend to everything else in my life that running drains energy from. There’s more I can do during the day and more mental and emotional energy I can give since I run short, slow runs the week before the race.
The day of the race, I usually feel great and fresh. It’s better to be fresh than overtrained and overwhelmed in any case. I used to panic about the taper, thinking I was losing fitness, thinking all of a sudden, I lost my mojo. Now, however, I have matured significantly as a runner and know listening to my coach and scaling it back is in my best interest.
How to taper outside of running
The art of tapering is not only applicable to running or sports. I taper before other big parts of my life, especially academia. For big, summative exams, like when I took the Law School Admissions Test, I did zero studying the four or five days before the exam.
Likewise, in running, it’s often more important to be well-rested and fresh than to feel like you’re training yourself to the ground. In my academic career, the exams I’ve done the worst on were always the ones I stayed up all night and did not sleep for. Most of the time, I would do just fine on an exam I didn’t study as much for but made sure to get a lot of sleep before.
I think a big part of tapering means trusting yourself. It means realizing the gains you made, the work you put into the process for weeks, months, and years, won’t go away with the snap of a finger.
It’s easy to feel like an imposter in that last week. The pressure of high performance can make you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.
The taper period is a chance to gain perspective and take a break. The same goes for when you get observed as a teacher — life goes on, the world moves forward, no matter how terribly the big performance goes.
For me, there are more important things than just running. There are more important things than just exams. There are more important things than teaching.
The taper period is a chance to center yourself, letting yourself know no matter what happens, your performance in the big event does not define you.
We all have high-pressure performances and events in our own lives. Last-minute, intense, preparation usually doesn’t make us any better — if anything, it might make us worse.
The time period before the big event is a time to rest, get your mind right, and let yourself recover. Remind yourself you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be, and you and the world will move on no matter what happens.
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This post was previously published on Publishous.
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