I guess that depends upon what you define as a taper. My last "long" workouts (say over 75 mile bike or over 20 mile run) is 3 weeks before the event.

I did a 3 week taper after a hard week. I had two stradegies depending how I felt:

One: Rest Week/Taper Week 1/Taper Week 2/ Race Week

Two: Hard Week/Taper Week 1/Taper Week 2/ Race Week

I chose the second because I felt great and felt I needed one more week of distance.

Physically I felt great for the race, if my stomach hadn't given me trouble I was right on track with my race plan.

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Ross Hoopingarner

Check this out:

http://www.coachgordo.com/...config.pl?read=10303

Worked well for me at both Full and half IM.