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Race week
The work is done. Race-week is about not undoing it. Pick your distance for a day-by-day taper plan — sessions, sleep, carbs, hydration, shakeout, gear list, and race-morning routine.
Full 21-day taper. Carb loading from T-3, last meaningful session T-3, strides T-1, and the race-morning fueling protocol.
Shorter taper than marathon. Quality + volume drop, but maintain frequency. Carb focus is one big lunch the day before — no multi-day load needed.
Three-sport taper. Brick workouts disappear, swim/bike/run frequency stays. Equipment check, race-morning nutrition timing, transition rehearsal.
Long-race taper. Gear shakeout, drop-bag prep, calorie-per-hour planning, night-running protocol, and pacing the first 20% conservatively.
Tapering reduces training load while keeping intensity touches alive so your nervous system stays sharp. The peer-reviewed evidence: a properly executed 2–3 week taper before a marathon improves race-day performance by ~3% on average. That's 5–8 minutes off a 4-hour marathon time.
The mistake most self-coached athletes make is to over-rest. Volume should drop 40–60%, but frequency stays the same. You still run 5–6 days a week — they're just shorter. Strides and pace pickups stay in. Long runs shrink and move toward race pace specificity.
The other big mistake is changing things. New shoes, new gels, new pre-race breakfast, new sleep routine. Race week is the worst time to introduce any variable. If you haven't done it in training, don't do it now.
CoachUpFit reads your HRV, Body Battery, and load trend during race week — if something is off, the plan adjusts. Free for 7 days, then $20/month.