Tapering tips for a 5k in less than 2 weeks?

yes bro

Most people are better off with a shorter taper, no more than a week long. Julien Wanders from what I read only takes the last four days easy. Personally feel like I do better too with a shorter taper.

While a long distance race decrease may start as ahead of schedule as 2– 3 weeks preceding race day, a 5K or 10K decrease requires close to 7– 10 days. The idea is straightforward: Reduce the volume of work so your legs feel new and solid on race day.

how to taper depends on how you train, the frequency of your quality sessions, how much rest you need between sessions, how long you have been training and what you are hoping to achieve during your race; basically, it requires lots of information not available to anyone on this site and so you are not likely to receive a personal answer to your question.

however...

for track races, the taper usually takes 7 - 10 days.

it will normally consist of:

1. reducing the volume of training

2. reducing the frequency of training by taking more rest days

3. focusing the faster work on race pace with long recoveries. the point of these sessions is not to improve fitness but to help you focus on the feel of race pace and on being relaxed at that pace. Dave Moorcroft's favourite pre-5000m race session was a simple 3 x 600m.

4. arriving at race day with the optimum amount of recovery, for you.

cheers.

Thanks for the amazing info!

I know about the reduced mileage and I took care of that. I just have one session for 5k place training. Should I add more?

And what about strength and core routines?

Who the f*ck tapers for a 5k?

It's a g*d d*mn 5k.

bearing in mind that you said a long run "tomorrow", which means Friday, If I were racing on the 7th May I think my final 10-days would look something like this:

Sat - rest day

Sun - tempos; at around 85% of race pace with short recoveries, 3 x 1200m, something like that.

Mon & Tue - easy runs of no more than 30 minutes

Wed - race pace, something like 6 x 400m with 2 - 3 minutes recovery

Thu / Fri easy runs of no more than 20 minutes

Sat or Sun - final race pace session, lower volume than Wednesday's session, the other day should be a rest day

Mon 2 - 3 miles really easy.

strength and core work - no heavy lifting. if you are a well-established gym rat then keep this up but use low weights, low reps, and long recoveries. no gym work in the last 3 - 4 days. the focus is on recovery so that you get to the start line FRESH.

if you are not a well-established gym rat, in, say, your first six months of regular gym work, stop now and resume after your race.

if you do mediative work such as foam rolling, massage, yoga, balance work etc., keep this up until after your final race-pace session. then do your post-session foam rolling or whatever it is you do then can it until after the race.

do not do anything in your pre-race warmup that you would not normally do before a training session.

cheers.

WhatTheWhat? wrote:

Who the f*ck tapers for a 5k?

It's a g*d d*mn 5k.

I would have said it with a little more tact, but this is dead on.

For a Saturday 5K, Friday do a thorough warmup. Strides. Cooldown.

Alright. Thank you for the amazing advice!

TaperShlaper wrote:

I have a 5k race on 7th of may. I'm gonna run my last long run tomorrow. Along with a strength and core routine.

After that, I have no clue on how to taper for my race.

Like I currently do 50-80 squats daily. Should I stop doing them during the week?

When's the taper period supposed to start?

Should I avoid doing any strength or core routines now?

And should I just run easy runs all week?

I do have a 2×1000m scheduled during the final week, should I do them?

Anything at all would be appreciated.

I'll be honest, I usually run 5k's on "tired legs" to continue building my cumulative build up to a BQ attempt in the next year or 2. I use 5k's as speed training and threshold work. I'll run 5-7 miles the day before, a few miles before the race and after.

I have been more precise maybe in the few weeks leading up to a 5k and focus on some 1-2 minute interval sets @ mile pace to get the system revved up. I am not a competitive runner, so I am sure they're approach would be much different.

5k races will never go out of style, they're fun and quite a rush. No matter how many miles you run, that last stretch is always a voluntary stress test.

What time goal are you shooting for?

In relation to strength work, cotton shirt summed it up very well. IF you have a large baseline of strength work, no need to stop now, maybe be mindful of the amount of volume you're doing with squats. We all react to different stimulus, but you can turn your legs into lead on top of all of the volume with running on top of the high volume sets.

Squats are fantastic for all athletes, however they also demand a big Central Nervous System response. If you're younger, you recover pretty quick, but can still burn yourself out, so just be mindful.

Good luck to ya!

1.5 cents wrote:

I'll be honest, I usually run 5k's on "tired legs" to continue building my cumulative build up to a BQ attempt in the next year or 2. I use 5k's as speed training and threshold work. I'll run 5-7 miles the day before, a few miles before the race and after.

That's wonderful advice for someone who doesn't give a f*ck about the race. Clearly the OP does.

And why do you need two years to build up to a BQ "attempt?" Reason: Because you're not training properly. So don't give training advice.

Well pretty decent advice if I ran for fun.

But this race is really big for me and I need all the help I can get.

I'm looking for sub 17:30.

wtf dude wrote:

1.5 cents wrote:

I'll be honest, I usually run 5k's on "tired legs" to continue building my cumulative build up to a BQ attempt in the next year or 2. I use 5k's as speed training and threshold work. I'll run 5-7 miles the day before, a few miles before the race and after.

That's wonderful advice for someone who doesn't give a f*ck about the race. Clearly the OP does.

And why do you need two years to build up to a BQ "attempt?" Reason: Because you're not training properly. So don't give training advice.

You know how to spot a wannabe beta on your best day on these boards? Your above response.

I've found tapering for a 5k pretty unhelpful to me in the past.

I just do my normal schedule with a day off before the race. Obv make sure any hard workouts are earlier in the week rather than later.