A taper is when you go from your highest training level and reduce your volume over a few weeks to let the body sharpen up and peak for a big race.
The idea behind a reverse taper is to go the other direction – from little or minimal training back to more running.
A reverse taper schedule is useful in a number of scenarios:
- When you need to recover between two races close together.
- When you need to take a period of rest.
- When you need to ease back in to running after a period of rest
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The below plan (inspired by Runner Connect) is what I use for myself and my athletes. Typically, this immediately follows a 13.1 mile or longer race at best effort and counts as a period of rest from training. It’s the recovery bridge between their big race and their next training block.
- Saturday/Sunday Race
- Week One
- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: Rest
- Thursday: 20-40 minutes cross-training
- Friday: Easy 20-30 minute jog
- Saturday: 20-40 minutes cross-training
- Sunday: Rest
- Week Two
- Monday: Easy 30-40 minutes run
- Tuesday: 30-45 minutes cross-training
- Wednesday: easy 30 + moderate 10 minutes cross-training
- Thursday: Easy 30-50 minutes run
- Friday: Easy 25 + moderate 15 minutes cross-training
- Saturday: Easy 30-50 minutes run
- Sunday: Rest
- Week Three
- Monday: Easy 40-70 minute run with a stride every 10 minutes
- Tuesday: Easy 50-80 minute jog
- Wednesday: Easy 40-70 run with a stride every 10 minutes
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: Easy 50-80 minutes with a stride every 10 minutes
- Saturday: Easy 50-80 minutes with a stride every 10 minutes
- Sunday: Rest
Cross-Training = anything non-running such as walking, cycling, rowing, the elliptical, swimming.
Strides = 30-second accelerations from your regular easy pace to a moderately hard effort level.