UNEDITED
RETHINKING TAPER
You’re standing on the start line; would you rather feel like you’re tapered or peaking?
Taper is defined as diminishing at one end, in our case, the preparation. Athletes fight and struggle their way through blocks of training, building strength, building belief and building performance only then to introduce the word taper which inherently carries a negative connotation. So much of an athlete’s performance comes from ‘between the ears’, and through the final phase of the preparation we carry with us a negative term, taper. Geez, way to ruin the party!
What if we simply called it peaking phase? There is even a line on the PMC chart that you can look at, the yellow one (TSB), which represents form. Watch that beautiful line climb and climb as the days progress, as you continue to stay to program, as you start to “peak”.
You could argue that peaking phase is reached before taper (depending on your periodization), however, peak fitness (CTL), does not mean peak performance. So, if you are an athlete driven by performance, it makes more sense to be on that start line feeling like you are peaking, ahead of feeling tapered. Physiologically the same, psychologically quite different, you haven’t lost fitness, you’ve gained form.
There is no question we need to reduce fatigue leading into an event to ensure peak physiological performance, hence why taper fitted so perfectly. It’s as if the word taper was given to this phase of training without any consideration to the phycological state of the athlete. Have you noticed the groundswell away from recovery week and towards adaptation week, it’s singing to the same hymn sheet.
Some athletes yearn for taper, some athletes fear taper, the spectrum is wide, and it is this spectrum that pushes athletes to behave in certain ways, contrary to how they’ve behaved for the previous months of preparation. In the context of TrainingPeaks you’ve been watching that blue line (CTL) rise and rise, only in the weeks before the race watch it fall and fall. Some athletes lose their minds!
Take the athlete that yearns for taper, they’ve slogged it out, and they been looking forward to that last session of the prep where everything starts to taper off. The extra 40 mins sleep before work, the “Netflix and chill” at night. However, it is this ‘yearning for taper’ that can be a steep slippery slope. Erring on the side of caution “it’s raining so I’ll skip this one today, I’ve done the work”, “I’m a bit tight, I’ll go get that massage instead of swim”. Suddenly, the green machine (the athlete with wall to wall green lights on their program) on TrainingPeaks has turned into a rainbow and hands back so much hard work in just a few weeks. Perhaps as the athlete that yearns for taper, can also yearn for the peak phase, only because they are in the peak phase, they remain a ‘green machine’.
Take the athlete that fears taper, they’ve slogged it out, and they been dreading taper for a month. The extra 40 mins of lying in bed in the morning wondering what to do, the dead time after dinner, again, this can be a steep slippery slope. “I’ll just turn the legs over for 40 mins to flush the legs out” “I feel so unfit, I’ll just throw in a few efforts to stay sharp on todays run”. That CTL you fought so hard to increase, you’re fitter than ever, and now its falls away, along with your hopes and dreams. Maybe, just maybe, if that final phase of the preparation was called peaking phase, they no longer fear it, and they too remain, ‘green machines’.
Perhaps the taper phase is just so engrained in the language and dialogue of athletes and coaches it’s not a battle worth fighting, do we just leave it for the future generations to thrive on? If your answer was the latter to the initial question, then you know what to do.
You’re standing on the start line; would you rather feel like you’re tapered or peaking?
Taper is defined as diminishing at one end, in our case, the preparation. Athletes fight and struggle their way through blocks of training, building strength, building belief and building performance only then to introduce the word taper which inherently carries a negative connotation. So much of an athlete’s performance comes from ‘between the ears’, and through the final phase of the preparation we carry with us a negative term, taper. Geez, way to ruin the party!
What if we simply called it peaking phase? There is even a line on the PMC chart that you can look at, the yellow one (TSB), which represents form. Watch that beautiful line climb and climb as the days progress, as you continue to stay to program, as you start to “peak”.
You could argue that peaking phase is reached before taper (depending on your periodization), however, peak fitness (CTL), does not mean peak performance. So, if you are an athlete driven by performance, it makes more sense to be on that start line feeling like you are peaking, ahead of feeling tapered. Physiologically the same, psychologically quite different, you haven’t lost fitness, you’ve gained form.
There is no question we need to reduce fatigue leading into an event to ensure peak physiological performance, hence why taper fitted so perfectly. It’s as if the word taper was given to this phase of training without any consideration to the phycological state of the athlete. Have you noticed the groundswell away from recovery week and towards adaptation week, it’s singing to the same hymn sheet.
Some athletes yearn for taper, some athletes fear taper, the spectrum is wide, and it is this spectrum that pushes athletes to behave in certain ways, contrary to how they’ve behaved for the previous months of preparation. In the context of TrainingPeaks you’ve been watching that blue line (CTL) rise and rise, only in the weeks before the race watch it fall and fall. Some athletes lose their minds!
Take the athlete that yearns for taper, they’ve slogged it out, and they been looking forward to that last session of the prep where everything starts to taper off. The extra 40 mins sleep before work, the “Netflix and chill” at night. However, it is this ‘yearning for taper’ that can be a steep slippery slope. Erring on the side of caution “it’s raining so I’ll skip this one today, I’ve done the work”, “I’m a bit tight, I’ll go get that massage instead of swim”. Suddenly, the green machine (the athlete with wall to wall green lights on their program) on TrainingPeaks has turned into a rainbow and hands back so much hard work in just a few weeks. Perhaps as the athlete that yearns for taper, can also yearn for the peak phase, only because they are in the peak phase, they remain a ‘green machine’.
Take the athlete that fears taper, they’ve slogged it out, and they been dreading taper for a month. The extra 40 mins of lying in bed in the morning wondering what to do, the dead time after dinner, again, this can be a steep slippery slope. “I’ll just turn the legs over for 40 mins to flush the legs out” “I feel so unfit, I’ll just throw in a few efforts to stay sharp on todays run”. That CTL you fought so hard to increase, you’re fitter than ever, and now its falls away, along with your hopes and dreams. Maybe, just maybe, if that final phase of the preparation was called peaking phase, they no longer fear it, and they too remain, ‘green machines’.
Perhaps the taper phase is just so engrained in the language and dialogue of athletes and coaches it’s not a battle worth fighting, do we just leave it for the future generations to thrive on? If your answer was the latter to the initial question, then you know what to do.
