If you're trying to peak for a certain race, do you really need to run much of anything the last 4 or 5 days? I understand jogging a few miles and stretching really good, but what's the point in doing anything else?
I remember after last cross-country season was over I took 6 days completely off. Then I started my winter training. I did a tempo run and felt amazing. I was thinking maybe it would be more beneficial to take a bunch of days off at the end.
Low easy mileage and strides.
My favorite taper before a big race
2 miles warm up 12x100 strides 2 mile cool
2 mile warm up 8x100 strides 2 mile cool
2 mile warm up 4x100 strides 2 mile cool
off or easy jog
Race.
for one thing, because if you just sit around, you will lose 1/2 the mitochondria you've worked so hard to gain (they have a half-life of one week). Also to keep blood volume up, and you do stuff at race pace to get your muscles coordinated at race pace.
Yea, I do 8X200m @ race pace about 4 day before the big race. The rest is just 20-35 min easy.
bump that shit
Tapering is an idividual matter; to a degree. The length of the peak race is a factor too. An 800m runner isn't going to need 8 mile runs during peak week, necessarily. A marathoner who tends to pound their legs can't afford to go into the marathon with beat up legs and so sacrifices some conditioning to have fresher legs. A steeple, 5k,10k runner can still run moderately high, but not too high mileage and be quite successful. Many in this category typically taper too much and lose threshold pace. A runner tapering from, say, 65 miles per week to 35 miles the last two weeks prior to the big race will run at threshold slower by 5-15 seconds per mile which will slow overall performance by 3-9 seconds per mile. The same runner stays at 60-65 two weeks before and 55-60 the week of the big race, while at the same time reducing the quantity of harder running (eg. from 3 miles of hard intervals to 2 or 1.5) will maintain threshold pace yet increase power production. Result? 5 second per mile p.r. for the season.
A 400-800m runner may get buy with as little as a couple miles of running and do well, provided some faster running is done, but with long recoveries between reps, not short. Short recoveries will quickly erode aerobic endurance and cause a runner on low mileage to fizzle out during the peak race. The more miles one runs, the more one can get away with shorter recoveries between reps because the extra miles done (after the anaerobic endurance workout) will re-establish aerobic endurance.
A 1500m runner can run modest amounts of mileage and be just fine, as long as there isn't much anerobic endurance training going on (short recoveries between fast reps). Lydiard has pointed this out often, but most people don't catch the fact that he says that high speed is fine, but longer recoveries are needed between reps during peaking. I can elaborate Lydiard's point sometime if people have a need for clarification.
I think one of the smartest things a 1500 runner can do is run a 5k tempo run early in the week and then do some light speedwork in the middle of the week to fine tune. That combination is a sure-fire way to go into the 1500m race feeling strong and running strong. You can run an easy 20-30 mintues on other days to keep the blood volume up and the body relaxed and smooth. Two obvious results of total rest are loss of blood volume (therefore loss of aerobic capacity) and loss of economy (therefore increasing oxygen cost of running....resulting inevitably in more lactic acid produced at a given pace).
The amount of freshness and speed you felt after your 6 day rest is quite possibly due to heavy fatigue from the weeks leading up to the rest, whereupon the rest actually helps you. The other possibility is that you are a genetic freak. I would bet the former, not the latter, but anything is possible. Six days is too much time off for most runners too have benefit. Loss of b.v. alone in that timeframe will hamper perfomance by 10 or more seconds per mile for most runners.
Why you need to train during that last week depends on what "model" you subscribe to. Dr. Tim Noakes' Central Governor Model basically says that your neurological adaptations will be compromised if you don't do any high-intensity training for a while. The Cardivascular Model is mentioned above. Both come to the same conclusion, though.
Tinman,
I seem to find that I run best off of mid-season workouts and mileage, and when I "taper" and "sharpen," I end up duller and feeling tired. Would suggest just keeping the mileage/workouts up and not worrying about a taper? Also, is there some way that I could run better if I did a partial taper, but then kept that mileage up for a while afterwards (like moving from 80 to 60-65 mpw, but holding it for 8 weeks or so for important comps)?
Thanks a lot.