tapering question

I've foind that in a well-designed taper you feel like crap with "taperitis" until about 2 days or so before the big gig.

It depends what type of workouts you've been doing up to this point. From my own research and experience I will say this: do not drastically cut your mileage and do not run fast intervals. Sorry that's not too specific, but you should get the rest by reducing your long run a bit and doing some (but not too much) race pace type stuff. If you have been successful through the season in the 80s, you should perform really well with mileage at 60. Good luck and I'm sure some of the coaches will fill in the blanks.

A few easy strides;nothing else;just strides.Make sure you warm up well.

im having the same problem man. my legs have been heavy the last 2 weeks and ive been dragging in practice a bit on the fast days. i hope you are right that they will feel snappy right before regionals. my quads are pretty heavy...could that be overtraining or would it more likely be because i am peaking. i was doing 65 for most of the season and did like 57 last week.

The hay's in the barn buddy...not a lot you can do at this point to improve fitness. Just do what you can do to keep yourself sharp. For some that means cutting mileage and strides w/some track work...for others that means keep doing what you've been doing. At the level you're running at now you should have a pretty good idea as to what works for you...go with instinct...Have faith in yourself, your training, and your coach and his/her system - and relax and have fun. There are a ton of people out there who would give anything to be in your shoes.

I remember reading somewhere, possibly even on these boards, the reason why legs feel heavy during tapering is due to the buildup that happens before. The muscles are recovering. After sometime the legs will feel much better.

lets hope they feel better sooner than later. i dont have much time....

Any other thoughts?

In general, your legs should really be "lively" the last few weeks of the season, if you're peaking well. Individuals respond differently, but dead legs are not (in general) an encouraging sign. Two things that can help you through, though:

1. Agreeing with the posters above, avoid making major changes in your routine at this point. If your legs are heavy your reserves are probably close to depleted. Don't present your body with yet another stimulus that it has to adapt to. (And, yes, a huge cut in mileage would be one example of such a new stimulus.)

2. This time of year can be tough for students because there are academic stresses (including disrupted schedules), as well. Jumbo Elliot (sp? the late Villanova coach) said it best: "Live like a clock." In the last weeks of the season, when you are adapting maximally to the stress of training/racing, you just don't have the reserves to adapt to other stressors like an irregular schedule.

In particular: Commit yourself to getting a full night's sleep every night, basically going to bed and getting up at around the same time each day. (And that includes the weekend days.) NOTHING HELPS DEAD LEGS BETTER THAN SEVERAL NIGHTS OF GOOD SLEEP. There's a lot of debate about whether you need a good night's sleep the night before the big race, or the night-before-the-night-before. How about you focus on good sleep the whole week before?

In line with this: A lot of people have favorite "stress foods"--stuff they particularly eat/drink when feeling stressed. Caffeinated drinks and chocolate (which also has caffeine) are two biggies in this category. Resist the temptation to load up on caffeine/chocolate when feeling stressed, because they'll only disrupt your sleep more.

And yes, I realize this is an old thread, but I think it's still timely.