My top tips for tapering
The taper phase are the final days or weeks before your race day. The length of your taper depends on many different factors, i.e. the kind of race, the distance, etc. It’s a crucial and integral part your training plan.
The ultimate goal is to reach my peak performance on race day. It may sound easy but it’s a really fine line and difficult to get it right. Generally speaking, my top tips are:
Don’t try anything new. Don’t all of a sudden increase the weight in your strength training or try out a new sports which might cause DOMS. Stick to what you’ve trialled during your training period.
Tapering is tough because you might feel like you’re underprepared. If you do tapering right, you won’t loose your fitness level. But let’s say you haven’t prepared as much as planned, it’s still better to be at the start line a little underprepared and with more energy in your tank than starting fatigued.
Besides reducing my training volume and intensity and trying to maintain my fitness level, I have figured out what other activities work for me and help me to get race-ready; mentally and physically. These work so well for me that I was able to reduce my taper from 2 to 1 week before my self-supported IronMan challenge.
Here are the things that I personally focus on during the last few days leading up to my challenges:
Yoga: Hot Bikram Yoga and (Aerial) Yin Yoga.
This helps me to connect my mind, body and soul. It also takes away my thoughts on the upcoming challenge and gives my mind a little break.
Journaling: Reminding me of my why, my goals and my mantras and affirmations.
Reflecting back on my whole training journey helps me to see the big picture, the progress I made and all the challenges I’ve overcome. It’s a real mental boost and also confidence boost.
Listen to specific songs: I have a playlist for different challenges and races.
Listening to these songs and closing my eyes visualising the different parts of the challenge I associate with them, helps me tremendously. I recall the songs and their lyrics on race day whenever I need them and they help me to push through.
For example, in the song Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel, he’s got a line saying “Show up for me, I will show up for you”. I recall this part of the song in my head or even sing it out loud when I’m going through a rough patch. For example, when I was on the bike during my self-supported IronMan, I had to cycle on a road which was under construction so I was afraid that I’ll get a puncture. So I kept on singing these lyrics meaning if my bike shows up for me (not getting a puncture), I’ll show up for it for the rest of the day and finish this endurance feat. It may sound weird but it helps me to stay focused, not to panic and to keep moving forward.
Visualisation = Self-hypnosis: This is my go to practice not only during my taper phase but for anything in life.
Self-hypnosis is a technique to get into a relaxed state and visualise your goal. I can really see my goal, I can feel it, smell it, hear it. It can be so real that I get goosebumps while I’m visualising how I finish a race. I also use it to train what I’m going to do at transition areas in triathlon and in what order. It’s one of the most powerful tools I’ve been experiencing.
Since I’m a qualified hypnotherapist, I create my own personalised scripts, record them and listen to them during my visualisation.
Digital detox: Reducing the distractions.
I stay away from social media as much as possible in order to stay focused on my goals. I don’t want to risk that a comment sidetracks my confidence and focus because it’d mean that I have to invest more strength in getting back into my focus zone.
If you are interested in working with to reach your peak performance or want to try out the power of visualisation, get in touch with me here and I’d be happy to arrange a free consultation call with you.