Taper and Race Recovery

June 4, 2015

With the Bellin Run fast approaching, Running Expert Nate Vandervest offers some great tips on taper and recovery:

With the Bellin Run nearly upon us, two very important steps in a person’s training are coming up. Some people misunderstand taper and recovery, so I’d like to clarify what you should be doing — and when you should be doing it — to have the best race and post-race recovery you can.

Let’s start off with the “taper” period. This is when you intentionally decrease your training volume (number of miles or minutes) in the days or weeks leading up to a race. The length of the race, number of weeks training and volume of training will all factor in to the length of your taper. For example, a marathoner will typically taper for three weeks prior to the race, a half marathoner for two weeks, and 10K and 5K runners for 7 to 10 days.

The main reason most runners start to go crazy during the taper period is that they think they’re losing fitness by not training as much — but in fact, you are actually gaining fitness by finally giving your body a chance to rest and recover. Typically, you will cut 15 to 25 percent of your training volume per week leading up to a race. A person can even cut his or her overall training volume up to 75 percent for up to 21 days pre-race — and still race the same. People who taper correctly by cutting overall volume often still miss out on the other key component, which is intensity. Keeping higher-intensity intervals or tempo runs in your program is essential at this point. This is how you will maintain your peak longer. 

The last thing in the taper period is timing. We know we don’t see immediate results from hard workouts like intervals and tempo runs. In fact, it can take anywhere from 7 to 14 days to see the results, depending on the duration and intensity of the workout. That said, doing a “killer” interval workout the week of a big race won’t do you any good — in fact, it will only make you more fatigued for the race.

Try this the next time you have a race: Do your last interval session 12 to 14 days out from the race. Do your last tempo or threshold run 10 days out from the race. The week of the race, do a couple of 800 or 1600 repeats at race pace. This last workout should be done around mid-week and is strictly to keep the legs moving fast and to find your pace; it should actually feel pretty easy. The next step is to show up on race day and give it everything you got!

Now the race is over. Hopefully you’ve accomplished your goal — but now what do you do?  Recovery, in my mind, is one of the most overlooked aspects of training. Everyone knows that you have to work hard to get results, but you also have to rest and recover to maximize all of your hard work. Once again, recovery will be dictated by the distance of the race you just completed. Research has shown that marathoners have decreased power output in their legs for 10 to 14 days. This tells me that after a marathon you should stay away from hard training for at least two weeks. Half marathoners can expect a week to recover. And 10K and 5K racers can expect a few days to recover. They may even get right back to normal training, depending on ability level. 

During recovery, you should keep all of your runs at a very easy, conversational pace. Your total volume should remain at about half of what your peak training volume was for the race. Listen to your body! I can’t stress this enough. If you feel tired, then cut your run short. Your goal is to recover as quickly as possible so that you can resume normal training. The longer this takes, the more you lose out on quality training time. Hopefully these few tips will help you reach your goals for your upcoming races. Best of luck!

Always Running,
Nate Vandervest, Running Coach, CSCS, CES

Nate is a running coach and strength coach who specializes in running assessments, strength training and personalized running programs. For more information contact [email protected]