Why do a race worse if I taper?

I know that if I taper too much, I get aches, pains and feel flat. Not enough and I feel flat. Just the right amount and I peak. Is it possible you're someone who needs only a very slight taper.

If you have tried all kinds of tapers and race better with no taper, you're unusual, but lucky because most people don't like tapering. I despise tapering. All I can think about is, "Am I tapering enough? Am I tapering too much?" and it drives me nuts. But I know I need to do it, because I don't race well without tapering. You should feel fortunate if you're one of the lucky few that races better with no taper.

You need to figure out the right workouts in the last week to be sharp and preserve blood (plasma) volume so you don't feel flat or lose that endurance.

I was like this too. I was a high mileage runner as you appear to be. I doubt we'll ever get more than speculation for why it happens. It certainly contradicts what the "experts" tell us. My best guess was that I ran so much on normal days for so many years that a sudden dramatic drop in how much I ran was too much of a"shock" for my muscles. I remember at the start of races feeling like my legs weren't in complete control and weak.

What workouts you doing when you taper vs before you taper?

I had a college teammate who was an aerobic monster and for about a year and a half raced worse any time we dropped mileage and got away from early-season type strength work (at the end of seasons, primarily). He finally started peaking better when he made his key weekly end-of-season workout a long, grind-it-out tempo on Monday, with a lighter multi-paced workout on Wednesday that still touched on tempo pace (race day was Saturday). He also didn’t back off volume at all except just do an easy 4-5 the day before the meet—the long run and all other east days were all still at peak volume.

I don’t know if this would work for you, but it might be worth trying.

It really is individualized. I had a high performing cross country team last year and found that two out of the top five runners did better without much of a taper at all. It had nothing to do with muscle fiber type or anything else I could explain scientifically.

For me, as an athlete I performed my best off of a short steep taper of around a week.

in the week or two before, keep running but just drop mileage. the muscles are still working they just aren't becoming as tired. then 2 days before the race do nothing. the day before the race run 5k reasonably hard. this works for me.

I agree with this. I have always found what works best for me personally is training completely as normal up until the last 3 days. Day 3 and 2 out I just jog for 30 minutes and on the day before I just do half a dozen easy 100m strideouts and some easy jogging. Always works a charm!

I use to have the same problem.

I found that doing a short, graduated taper worked better for me.

Before a goal race, I'll now do a fairly specific, high volume workout, 10 days out. I'll stick to my same routine from then on, but just gradually reduce volume.

I'll still keep the intensity high in my remaining workouts, but reduce volume by 20% in my second to last workout, 30% in last long run, then 40% in last workout, which will usually be 3 days out. The last workout will usually be some shorter, sharper reps as well e.g. 10 x 200m Hills, etc.

I'll just take 5-10 mins off my last few easy runs.

Are your workouts a lot faster the 2 weeks during your taper?

I found myself as someone who recovers faster than most so a longer taper always left me feeling undertrained going into a race, usually would just taper 1-2 days before a big meet.

If you normally run around 110mpw racing you should be in the 90s id say