How to do a full taper down from 100mpw for a 5k?

I think a common mistake people do with tapers is they do a long gradual taper, so their highest mileage is quite far from the race like 5 or 6 weeks out. Keep it pretty high as long as you can, then do an aggressive short taper. Think almost the extreme of when high schoolers PR at the thanksgiving turkey trot because they took a week off before and are rested.

I think 3 weeks out can be the end of your highest mileage week (21-27 days before race). The week ending two weeks out is slightly lower, like 10%-15% lower (14-20 days before race). Then the full week before the race you're down to 75% of your peak volume (7-13 days before race), slightly front loaded with a shorter end of week long run. Then the week of the race is also front-loaded and about 50% of your peak volume. So you are still running quite a bit per day until 10 days before the race and then it starts being pulled back quite a bit, especially the few days before the race. And last real hard workout is 10-12 days before the race, then you can do a medium workout 6-9 days before and a really light workout a few days before the race and some strides the day before the race.

Bump. Any other takes?

taperquestion wrote:

Bump. Any other takes?

If you’re running 100 mpw, you probably know more about training than me. But here’s my take.

If it’s the key race of the season, you could do a 2 week taper. If you’re at 100 mpw, then drop down to 80 mpw for 1 week, then 60 mpw, race week.

Then, since it’s only a 5K, you could quickly pop back up to 80 or 90 miles, post race week one, but limit speed work, depending on how you feel Then back to 100 mpw, 2 weeks post race.

I like a 3 week taper with your last hard workout 10 days away from your peak race.

A nice peak workout for 5k would be something that touches on 5k race pace AND mile pace for speed/turnover. Something challenging but not killer.

10 days out from peak race:

2k @ 5k goal pace

800m jog

600m @ mile pace

Just easy 30-45min the rest of the days before your race.

There’s also a sizzling hot peaking take in Running With The Buffalos. That’s a must read for you XC coaches and runners.

Ima tell you the secret.

Tapering doesn’t make you faster. There’s no physiological principle that says less work= faster

The purpose of the taper is to have you feeling fresh. You want to do as much running as you can while getting as fresh as you can.

If you drop to 60mpw from 100mpw you aren’t going to know what to do with yourself, it’s going to be completely different scheduling and running, and I would bet you would feel flat and uncomfortable and most likely race like crap.

The two week taper is very effective and works for a lot of people. What you want to do is drop the majority of the mileage in the first week, and a little more the second week.

For example going from 100>90>85

If you’re racing well off 100mpw, then stick to your schedule. The taper often gets messed up cause people think you can just barely run and get faster, it’s about extra recovery

Overload Principle: The overload principle refers to a physical training practice in which the body is intentionally pressed to work beyond its current limits. ... The effects of the overload principle are achieved through steadily increasing the work load for the desired exercise or task.

Supercompensation: In sports science theory, supercompensation is the post training period during which the trained function/parameter has a higher performance capacity than it did prior to the training period.

The reason we do high mileage and challenging interval workouts is to overload our body, tire ourselves.

THEN we reduce the training, taper, and experience SUPERCOMPENSATION and PEAK for our most important competitions.

Better question is why to taper, than how. You're way over the volume necessary for that race distance; cutting that volume is going to recover you what - speed? max VO2? Things you haven't even been training with those long runs won't be improved with rest.

You'll recover towards what you've been doing, which is to run really far. Thus you taper for a marathon. For this, how about just stop running 3 days before the race so you're fresh?

Not speaking workouts I like to go down to about 2/3rds volume. So 60-65 miles with cutting doubles etc. I usually just go from 100% volume to 2/3rds volume the last few weeks.

Going to get beat down by this, but it strikes me as weird that someone would run 100 miles per week, for nearly a year, for the sake of shaving a couple minutes off of a 5k race result. Isn't there something else more important to excell at?

RyecorDone wrote:

Going to get beat down by this, but it strikes me as weird that someone would run 100 miles per week, for nearly a year, for the sake of shaving a couple minutes off of a 5k race result. Isn't there something else more important to excell at?

You are going to get beat down, because this is just an ignorant opinion. People derive satisfaction from setting goals, and reaching them. Running a 5k PB after putting in the work aligns with fundamental human drive, so it's completely normal. Same with any other hobbies, it helps people grow.

What would you consider more important to excel at ? Work ? Although progressing at your job is rewarding financially, it's unhealthy and unsustainable for your life to revolve around work... Learning a language ? Not terribly useful most of the time honestly, although it's cool and helpful in traveling. Developing technical skills ? Again, it can satisfying to fix up a car or motorcycle yourself for personal development ( just like running a PB) but it's not a necessary skill considering you can simply pay a mechanic (and if you have the time to learn all that you probably have some extra cash...) All of these "hobbies" are pretty interchangeable and I wouldn't place one over another.

I wouldn't consider someone training hard to achieve a PB to be weird at all, it's simply one expression of our natural need for growth.