Tapering and race week

A taper is the planned cut in training volume before a race, kept short enough to hold fitness and long enough to shed fatigue. Race preparation goes wrong in the last few weeks more often than in the months before. These questions cover the taper, tune-up races, a bad block and the week after the finish line.

• How long does a taper need to be?

  Taper length by race distance, from 5k to marathon: what a taper clears, how volume and intensity change, and which signals in your data confirm the length.

• How to taper for a marathon when you feel terrible

  Why a marathon taper can leave you heavy, flat and achy, what the taper is doing to your body, and how to tell normal taper fatigue from a real warning sign.

• Did I peak too early? Taper flatness vs real fatigue

  How to tell normal taper flatness from early peaking or real over-fatigue: the warning signs, a strides test for nerves, and what to check in your data.

• Should a tune-up race change your pace?

  How to tell whether a bad tune-up race reflects your fitness or just the day: the causes to rule out, what training already shows, and when a trend is real.

• What to do the week after a race?

  What the week after a race should hold: how muscle damage, glycogen and tendons recover on different timelines, and which signals say you're ready to train.

• Can you still PR after a bad block?

  What a disrupted training block costs a goal time: which fitness fades first, why weeks left before race day decide more than the cause, and what to check.