I feel like there is a general trend towards more tapering for a longer race on both a micro (days before/week of) and macro (weeks preceding) level and vice versa. any truth to this, or scientific support?
I feel like there is a general trend towards more tapering for a longer race on both a micro (days before/week of) and macro (weeks preceding) level and vice versa. any truth to this, or scientific support?
basically I'm asking because I have a mile race this weekend, and wanted to run further than I normally would the day before to keep my mileage up. I feel like it matters less for the mile than it would for a longer distance, but this is only an intuition.
You taper the same in order to feel sharp for any race, no matter the distance. In fact I would taper more for shorter races because shorter races require less aerobic capacity and more on power which you can apply best when FRESH. Fresh applies to all races, so I generally would taper the same to all races since your aerobic base diminishes extremely slowly.
The only thing I can think of about tapering that determines how much you back off is if you know you are the type of runner who gets flat when you back down too much. Personally I do not get that much fresher running 50 in my taper or 30, except that when I run 30 I get FLAT. My legs just dont have any spring when I back off too much.