Ironman’s “fastest woman ever,” pro Kat Matthews, is tapering for another Ironman this weekend. Just five weeks between her record-shattering performance in Texas, she’s gearing up to race in Hamburg.
Out for a ride on the weekend, Matthews shared she was feeling unmotivated during the taper, as she often does. Sitting on a bench with a brown bag and cup in hand, she vlogged that her low motivation had led her to pull up during her ride in favour of a coffee stop for some mood-boosting caffeine and a baked treat. She admitted that she often felt unmotivated during her tapers. She combats that by focusing on her excitement about the upcoming race.
It’s refreshing to know that even pros struggle during a taper, which can be a difficult time mentally and physically. As volume is reduced, less endorphins and dopamine are delivered to a brain that is accustomed to constant hits. We become the athletic version of an addict going through withdrawal. This can lead to mood changes and sleep disruption, irritability and low mood.
Managing mood
Sound familiar? The experience is so common it has been labelled the “taper crazies.” How to manage the emotional and physical side of tapering can be tricky. It’s further complicated by the fact that every taper is different, so you can’t create a template and just repeat it every time. To some degree, there will be individualized elements of a taper that should be repeated every time, like trends in how one should reduce volume and intensity. But with so many other factors in play, it can be difficult to navigate and nail each time.
While the physical elements to tapering are quite straightforward, the mental piece is complex. In a state of endorphin and dopamine withdrawal, fears and doubts about fitness and performance, it’s important to be intentional about how you manage your mood and thoughts during this time. Going for walks in nature provides a serene place for the mind to regroup and recharge, while taking the body through gentle movement. If your big training block has forced you to neglect the dog, patiently waiting by the door for a walk, now is the perfect time to enjoy that missed activity.
Making plans with family and friends is critical. Instead of moping on the couch, marinating in the awful feelings of lethargy and doubt, organize a movie night with the kids, host a poker game, or finally enjoy that new deck furniture that you’ve been watching the cat lounge on while you busily attend to life, work and training. Though it’s not the time to start a new house project, or wheelbarrow loads of dirt to the garden you’ve been meaning to start (these are my own past personal offences), it is a good time to start that book you ordered 10 months ago, spend some time baking without being rushed, or washing that shiny truck.
Mental burnout
What Matthews described is often the fallout of a big block or back-t0-back racing that leads to mental burnout. A huge build ahead of a taper is designed to overreach so that your fitness is maximized – but with enough time ahead of the event to recover from the load, in order to optimize athleticism. But this physical overreaching in training can cause mental burnout. So when the taper hits the training plan, you hit the deck. The need for a mental and physical break is so high that it drains motivation. Then the struggle becomes the will and ability to train at all during the taper. Not enough training during taper can lead to feeling “flat,” and losing too much fitness.
The flip side to that is when athletes want to train more than they should during the taper. As a coach, the most common reasons I see athletes wanting to train too much during the taper is the need for that dopamine hit, fear of losing their fitness, lack of confidence in their race readiness, or simply boredom. Training too much during taper is in direct conflict with the desired outcome of de-loading in order to shed fatigue, repair muscles and rest the mind. The emotional side of tapering is so intense it often trumps an athlete’s rational thinking.
Despite knowing what they need to do during the taper, and why, fighting the mental demons that tempt them to train too much in the final weeks can be tough, and feel horrible. Too much training during the taper will leave you fatigued at the start line, unable to express your true fitness.
Managing volume
Whichever end of the spectrum you fall on, the principles are the same. As for how many days you should taper, that generally depends on the distance of your race. In terms of appropriate training volume during this time, the taper is a moving target. It will differ depending on the specifics of each race, like distance, elevation, terrain, and personal goals. There are principles that will help you though, no matter the finer details about duration and intensity.
For a sprint it is typical to taper for five to seven days. For an Olympic, seven to 10 days is a good range. For the longer races, 10 to 14 days is ideal for a half-Ironman, and up to three weeks for an Ironman. Cut volume gradually. If it’s an Ironman, a good rule-of-thumb is to cut volume by 20 per cent the first week, 40 to 60 per cent in the second week, and 25 to 40 per cent during race week.
Always maintain some intensity in the taper. Keep doing your sprint, threshold and race pace intervals but reduce volume appropriately. This will maintain your fast turnover and make sure you have some pop in the legs on race day.
Nutrition strategies
Auxiliary details to focus on during the taper is nutrition, rest and mental well-being. Don’t cut calories to align with a drop in volume. Your body is working hard to repair and adapt. If you under-fuel during this time it could compromise adaptation, result in low energy on race day, and delay any repairs to the soft tissue, particularly if you are rehabbing an injury. You can reduce carb intake, to a certain degree, because there will be less intra-fuelling and less carb loading before a high-volume weekend.
Don’t make the mistake of drastically reducing carbs during this time, or going low-carb-high-protein. You want to ensure your muscles are not depleted of glycogen ahead of your race. Carb-loading a few days out from race day is also recommended. Stick to simple carbs, like juice, pop, candy for the extra carb calories, to minimize bloat. Bagels, pasta, and rice are also good choices, but be mindful that they stay in the gut longer. If they are also high-fibre you want to keep that in check, especially the day before your race and on race day.
Mental strategies
Use past experience to help inform the appropriate load during your taper, and factor in race specificity. Load will vary with each race due to these considerations, but the one constant will be the mental strategies you put in place. Make a list of the feelings you anticipate experiencing, especially the negative ones, so when they happen you can remind yourself that you are not in fact “crazy.” Include on your list some of the things you enjoy doing that are not physical, and which you rarely get to do because of the time you have dedicated to training.
Review your training plan to remind yourself of all the hard work you’ve put in, the sessions you nailed and the progress you’ve made. If you honour the taper, your body can honour your fitness, and prepare you for an amazing day out on the course.
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