When should I taper? I have two important races at the end of the season, Region and State. I don't know when to start cutting back or how much to do because I don't want to taper too early for State or too late for Region. Any help is appreciated.
When should I taper? I have two important races at the end of the season, Region and State. I don't know when to start cutting back or how much to do because I don't want to taper too early for State or too late for Region. Any help is appreciated.
The_Big_Mazungo wrote:
When should I taper?
When you go to bed at night.
Shouldn't your coach be worrying about that?
Maybe you let your coach decide, thats how I always did. A lot of high schoolers try to do it on their own but it never works!
This is a very loaded question because we have no idea of how you trained in the summer and during the season. For a generic answer, you can generally hold a peak for 3 to 4 weeks if well trained. To be safe, start your taper 2 to 3 weeks before the State meet. Lower your miles and do sharpening workouts such as 50 meters hard, 50 meters easy, for your speed sessions. Again, I have no idea of how you have trained, so don't rip me, I'm just trying to help. Lydiard has a good tapering phase. You can probably find such info at lydiardfoundation.org.