Planning

Tapering for Success

Brian Mackenzie explains why tapering before competition is beneficial.

Research

Most endurance athletes accept that tapering before a competition can improve performance, but few understand why.

A trial was conducted back in the 1980's by a group of Canadian researchers at the McMaster University in Ontario. The trial was conducted for a one week period, with a group of experienced endurance athletes who all run approximately 50 miles a week in training. The athletes were split into 3 groups, with each group working a different training programme for the week. At the end of the week the performance improvement for each group was checked. The results were as follows:

As it can be seen from the table, group 3 achieved the best improvement in their performance (22%). In addition group 3 enjoyed four advantages over the other groups

• More glycogen in the leg muscles
• Increased density of red blood cells
• Increased blood plasma
• Increased enzyme activity in their leg muscles

Similar tests have also concluded that as well as achieving the above advantages there is also an improvement in the neural system. The end result is that the athlete has an improved ability of a better rested nervous system to control and co-ordinate better rested muscles at faster running speeds. These are all very desirable in an athlete's preparation for a major competition.

What to do

If your total mileage is less than 50 miles a week and your event is less than one hour then:

• taper for 7 -10 days
• reduce the total mileage by 80%
• training intensities high interval sessions (90% VO2max)
• reduce frequency of training by 20%

If your total mileage is greater than 50 miles a week and your event is greater than one hour, then taper for 14-20 days otherwise use the same strategy.

Tapering in training

If tapering in this way can have this effect on your performance then perhaps you should consider including tapering weeks in your season's training programs. With all my athletes I use a four week cycle, where the fourth week is an active rest and test week. In this fourth week the training load is reduced by 70%, 2 or 3 tests at max effort are performed and light sessions are included between tests. The tests are used to monitor progress made in the proceeding three weeks of training and the results are considered in the planning of the next 4 week cycle.

Article Reference

This article first appeared in:

• MACKENZIE, B. (2003) Tapering for Success. Brian Mackenzie's Successful Coaching, (ISSN 1745-7513/ 7 / November), p. 2

Page Reference

The reference for this page is:

• MACKENZIE, B. (2003) Tapering for Success [WWW] Available from: http://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/scni7a2.htm [Accessed

About the Author

Brian Mackenzie is a UK Athletics level 4 performance coach and a coach tutor/assessor. He has been coaching sprint, middle distance and combined event athletes for the past 20+ years and has 35+ years experience as an endurance athlete.

Associated Pages

The following Sports Coach pages should be read in conjunction with this page:

• Coaching Articles
• Training Articles
• Sports Specific Articles
• Literature Review