For all of you who are competing tapering is a key element of the physical preparation in the last 2 to 3 weeks up to the race. If you dig in the literature data about taper is very scarce and not very conclusive. There is definitely a lack of studies. The focus of the available studies is narrow, they mainly look at a single competition only, a single peak, and not on what tapering should be like if multiple peaking is required (e.g. weekly, multi-day or multiple events). The understanding of the physiological, neuromuscular, and biomechanical basis of the taper is still limited.
You probably experienced yourself that tapering is quite a blurry subject, therefore I call the survey “about the art of tapering”. Dear Rachel Joyce calls it that way too, and she knows what she is talking about. Taper is such an individual thing that it makes sense to launch a survey, and then share the different views on this topic among you.
The importance of taper has been discovered in the 1950ties. You may not believe it, back in 1912 the South African runner Christian Gitsham who finished second in the Stockholm Olympic marathon set out the day before this race to run the complete marathon distance.
Only in 1960ties taper became more recognized and was then defined as a period for adaptation and for the decrease of fatigue without inducing detraining effects. Today tapering strategies out there range from short-term to long-term approaches, from stepwise to exponential taper with slow or fast decay. To put it in a nutshell, the proceeding is still mainly based on trial and error.
The survey of which the results will be published should help to optimize your very own taper period.
Let’s start it with a quote from Prof. Timothy Noakes, the author of Waterlogged and the Lore of Running: “Once you decide to taper, do as little training as your mind will allow you, but do that little at a fast pace!”
This sentence indicates already the problems that come along with tapering. And here are the questions for you. We are extremely curious to read your approach to tapering and the issues you are struggling with.
This survey is now closed. Thank you so much for participating.
