6 days out from first HIM on Sunday. I’m experienced at tapering for Oly distance race and very experienced with full marathon tapers. Coach started reducing my volume about a week ago. This week she has me with 5 hours (my peak was 14 hours) mostly high intensity stuff (taper repeats, etc.) with one full Day Off on Friday.
Does this make sense? Is one Day Off and 5 hours seem like not much rest? Feeling aches and pains before, during and after most workouts in the past couple of days.
I say trust your coach. Some programs go with more pure rest, some have recovery workouts, some (like yours) have mostly short stuff with race pace-ish intensity. If you are already on the road to the race try following the taper plan and see where it takes you. Some people never changed their taper from the first one they did and don’t know if there might be a better way out there. If you go part way with your coach’s taper and then switch over to whatever you want to do, then come race day you will not be able to determine which approach is responsible for your good/bad day.
If you are experienced with tapering, and you were going hard before the taper, then you should know by now that there will be taper workouts that feel like shit. That is the point of the taper - give the body a chance to get in to “repair” mode instead of “work” mode so you will be fresh on race day. Nobody ever finishes a PR race and thinks “That was great, but it would have been even better if my legs didn’t feel flat on the Wednesday before the race.” It is really hard to tell how well a taper is going until AFTER the race, when your body either shows you the money or folds on a bust hand.