by Karen Smyers
One of my favorite phases of training and racing is The Taper. It ranks right up there with massage and carbo-loading on my list of reasons that I do triathlon. I find myself looking forward to the taper weeks and even months in advance. When I am trying to schedule a time to do my taxes for example, I will think, oh, I will do it in early September when I am tapering for the World Championships. I imagine I will be brimming over with time and energy during this phase. This seldom proves to be the case, but it is a good excuse to file for an extension.
Taper Prerequisites To execute a good taper, it is (unfortunately) necessary to have some sort of foundation from which to taper–in other words, you must have done some pretty hard training leading up to the race; otherwise you run the risk of tapering yourself right out of shape. In general, the longer and harder the work phase leading up to the taper, the longer the taper can be. So if you have had a several month long build up to Ironman, you can take as long as a month to taper for the race. If you have had a three week intense build up for the National Championships, a one week taper is probably about right. Continue reading
