Taper phase
Taper One-Pager
The most misunderstood phase, condensed to one sheet you can follow when you are too anxious to think.
The rules
- Drop volume 40–60% across the final 1–2 weeks.
- Keep intensity. Short, sharp efforts preserve fitness while fatigue drains away.
- Maintain frequency. Keep training 5–6 days a week, just much shorter.
- Taper length scales with race distance. Longer race, longer taper.
Taper length by distance
| Race distance | Taper length | Volume reduction |
|---|---|---|
| Sprint | 5–7 days | 30–40% |
| Olympic | 7–10 days | 40–50% |
| Half Ironman | 10–14 days | 40–60% |
| Full Ironman | 14–21 days | 50–60% |
Keep / drop
Keep
- Short, sharp intervals, e.g. 6 × 1 minute hard
- Race-pace efforts of 10–20 minutes
- Consistent training frequency
- Sleep, hydration and carb intake
- Strides and openers close to race day
Drop
- Long rides and long runs
- High-volume interval sets
- Heavy strength work, stop 10+ days out
- New workouts, gear or nutrition
- Stressful life projects, if you can help it
The session menu
- Week −2 (60% volume)
- Last long-ish brick. Short race-pace intervals in each sport. No heavy strength.
- Week −1 (40% volume)
- 20–30 min bike with 2 × 5 min at race pace. 20 min run with strides. 20 min swim with race-pace pickups.
- Last 3 days
- Very short sessions, 20–30 minutes, to keep the nervous system engaged. Focus shifts to sleep, hydration and logistics.
- Race morning
- The rehearsed routine only. Nothing you have not done in training.
Red flags
- Phantom fatigue: feeling heavy, flat and irrationally anxious. This is normal. It is your body absorbing the work.
- The urge to squeeze in one more long ride. This is the single biggest taper killer.
- Adding work to feel better about the taper. It does not work and it costs you the race.
- Nothing to do with the restless energy. Walks, stretching, meal prep, logistics. Channel it somewhere harmless.
Next step
Taper week is the right time to lock your splits, pacing bands and fuelling into a printable race-day sheet.
Race Day PlannerCondensed from the full Taper Phase Training Guide. mytriathloncalculator.com
Get the other phase one-pagers
Base, build, peak and taper: the printable sheets, plus the calculators as they ship.
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