They also reduced the HIT time to 6 days

Does anyone do only 6 days of HIT before a taper?

The idea was to evaluate a shorter total taper period vs a longer one to accommodate competition schedules. So that seems appropriate.

Result doesn’t seem surprising to me. In swimming the distance guys always tapered less than the sprint group. 5-7 days vs 2-3 weeks) Some of the female distance swimmers performed best with no taper at all.

Makes sense that cyclists, who are doing longer duration, lower intensity than swimmers, would do well on a shorter taper.

---

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

There is a ton of great high intensity taper research done by Joe Houmard, Andy Johns & Barry Scott that to this day still influence high intensity tapering in runners & swimmer.

I'd bet $10k that the authors of this study referenced by the OP read every single study done by these guys prior to doing their research.

If you're a fan of going fast on race day it behooves you to go read these studies.

---

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I've found that over the years (10th year in tri) I've responded better to going with a shorter taper. I did around a 12 day taper going into a June IM in which I qualified for Kona for the first time. This past weekend I did a four day taper heading into a 70.3 and set a two minute HIM run PR, winning my AG in an IM event for the first time. I used to do the three week thing for an IM and two weeks for a HIM, but I just felt I lost too much fitness and felt pretty flat come race day.

---

Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

 
I was just contemplating tapper with my training buddies yesterday. We are all working toward a September 28th IM event.

I have felt flat going into 1/2 IM races in the past after a reduced volume tapper of 5-7 days. I've considered doing the tapper 3 weeks out (5-7 days) and then begin the ramp up again just to feel engaged with the required 140.6 IM effort.

What are your thoughts on that approach?

---

Dan Kennison

facebook: @triPremierBike
http://www.PremierBike.com
http://www.PositionOneSports.com

I've had great results with a longer taper, as is advocated here:

https://www.ironman.com/...art-of-tapering.aspx

Here's another really good resource for tapering:

https://rua.ua.es/..._VI_N_II_264-270.pdf

Much like training and nutrition, one needs to find their best timeframe, and event dependent as well. I agree with Mark's idea that all three sports require different timeframes and have had exceptional results using that idea.

For me personally, I've found that breaking taper out by sport helps. I start tapering the run 10-14 days out (depending on how i'm feeling/ performing in workouts), then the bike ~7-10 days out. For the swim I won't start tapering until late in race week, and even then i'll do like 80% of the second session in the week. By the time I'm approaching an A race I'm usually in maintenance mode anyway for the swim so don't really find a need for a taper there.

Personally have had great results (for me) from doing the following for myself and other athletes:

3 Weeks Out - Taper/Recover
2 Weeks Out - Tune/Sharpen
1 Week Out Race

If it works into your schedule for a race after finishing a big training block it is nice to shed the fatigue. Otherwise if it is a situation where I am racing back to back events (70.3) I have done it a few different ways.

1) Train regularly until Wednesday PM for a Saturday race taking Thursday off, and Friday is pre-race shake out.
2) Take Monday-Wednesday ultra easy/recovery focused, and ramp back up to get a bit of stimulus in the body prior to the Saturday race.

Too long of a taper and I feel like a slug - well more than usual at least.

---

IG: NCGregory8778

My best races have come off a 10 day taper. That means the first half of the penultimate week is hard/long, and the latter half is easier, including the long bike/run a week out. Volume really drops off 6 days out (but frequency is maintained).

This excludes swimming of course where a 2 day taper is more than sufficient (no pink).

---

Strava

I've done your first suggestion with good results.

I've never really thought a long taper is necessary, at least for me personally. It really depends on how much fatigue you are carrying which comes down to how your training in the preceding months has been structured. I did the IM Talk Challenge Roth training camp last year where volume, especially on the bike, is way higher than anyone would typically do in the 7-10 days before a race unless you were "training through" and had one of my best IMs ever. I think it was my fastest IM run split. Of course it helps that we were away from the typical home/work life and had nothing to do except eat, rest, drink beer, and watch World Cup games when we weren't training :)

Interesting study, thanks for posting. Fits pretty well with my experience of tapering for cycle events

I think the right taper approach depends on a whole bunch of factors:
- The sport or sports. Takes longer for running fatigue to work it's way out of the legs than cycling, at least IME
- Event distance. Tapering for a sprint tri vs an IM vs a 1 week stage race are all going to be different
- The training you've been doing. Low vs high volume, intensity, etc
- The athlete themselves. Age, training history, genetics, etc.

I'm actually surprised it refers to a 2-3 week taper as being "normal". This is normal for IM, but amongst the cyclists I know a shorter taper is already much more common, a week seems to be about the norm.