The Perfect 7-Day Plan Before Your Next Race

Do you have a plan to taper the week before a race? Learn what tapering is and why you should do it — then use our science-backed tapering plan.

Race day. It’s there in black and white on your calendar…unavoidable. And somehow, it’s only a week away. 

What seemed abstract and far over the horizon when you signed up is now looking very real indeed. 

Now, after months of training, you should be feeling as ready as you can for the event. And if you’ve been following a training plan, you should soon be starting your taper week, where you reduce the amount you run and let your body rest. 

But how exactly should you taper in the week before a race?

This guide includes:

• An overview of what tapering is and why it’s so important
• A science-backed taper week plan you can adapt to your needs
• Other factors to consider in the days before a race

Taper week meaning and purpose

Tapering is a critical part of training for any long-distance endurance event.

A taper week simply involves cutting back the amount of training you do in the run-up to the event itself. This has many benefits, but it is essentially about letting your body get enough rest in preparation for the exertions ahead.

For example, if you were following a half-marathon training plan, you would have gradually built up your fitness and increased your distances over the course of a few months. Your longest training run would happen around a week before the race - perhaps covering 18km or so. Then, in the taper week for a half-marathon, you’d reduce the time and distances for each of your last few runs. 

What is the point in tapering?

Studies show that practically all professional endurance athletes follow tapering programmes, and they’re near-universally recommended by coaches. So, why is tapering seen as so essential? 

• Improves performance: The bottom line is that tapering makes you quicker on race day. A meta-analysis of studies concluded that the average performance improvement from tapering is 3% (with a range of 0.5% up to 6%). If your normal time for a half-marathon is 2 hours, doing a half-marathon taper week could reduce your time to around 1:56. 
• You’ll feel better on race day: Tapering gives your body time to rest and repair any damaged tissue sustained during your training. That means you should feel more energised on race day. 
• Lowers your injury risk: Whether you’re running a half-marathon, marathon, or an ultra, tapering reduces your risk of getting injured both on race day itself and in the days beforehand. 
• Allows you to build up glycogen reserves: Your body stores glucose in your liver and muscles in the form of glycogen. If you’re constantly training, your body doesn’t have the opportunity to build up those reserves. But if you taper for at least a week before a race, your body has time to build up those stores. And that means you won’t be running on empty. 
• Psychological preparation: Tapering can also be helpful when it comes to preparing mentally for the race.

Tapering should be personalised to you

There are endless opinions and ideas about what to do the week before a race. However, while tapering is almost universally viewed as beneficial, it’s as much an art as a science. 

There are many ways to taper - including fast reductions in normal training, steady reductions, or stepped reductions. There are also varied opinions on how long to taper for. And there are debates around the kinds of exercise you should and shouldn’t do at this time.

Ultimately, you know your body and running style best, and this should inform your personal tapering strategy. For instance:

• If you know you get bad DOMS after longer runs, then you might want to extend your taper for up to two or three weeks. 
• If you know that you get super anxious in the days before a race, then doing more short runs can ease those nerves. 
• If you find you often hit a wall in endurance races, you might want to extend your carb-loading phase. 

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Half-marathon taper week plan

We’ve put together this simple plan for taper week for a half-marathon. It’s based on general good practice from expert sources and our own running and nutrition experts. But as we mentioned above, you should adapt it to your own needs and running style.

If you’ve got a marathon or an ultra-marathon on the horizon, then we’d recommend extending the taper for up to two or three weeks. You’d also need to adjust the distances and times accordingly. 

Understanding our taper week plan

Our taper week plan is based on a combination of Huel nutritionists' advice as well as rigorous scientific research into endurance race tapering.

Here are a few key points to better understand the plan so you can adjust it to your needs:

Maintain training frequency, but reduce volume

In our plan, you will continue to train for four days in the tapering week. However, volume (distance/time) decreases significantly. 

Why? 

A comprehensive analysis of research concluded that tapering is most effective when training volume drops between 41-60%, but without altering volume. 

In our week-long plan, running distance drops by about 55% in the three days of running training (down from 18k to ~7k per run). There is also a fourth day of gentle aerobic exercise to get your body moving, but without working your primary running muscles. 

Basically, you’re still exercising on as many days as you were earlier in your training plan, but doing much shorter runs.

Taper progressively

There are different tapering strategies, but studies suggest a gradual or progressive approach to tapering is most effective.

In our week-long plan, you’ll run around 8k seven days before the race, 6-7k five days before the race, and 5-6k two days before the race. 

Carb-loading stage

The carb-loading stage is when you increase the consumption of carbohydrates before the race. This helps build up your glycogen reserves. 

Research suggests that you only really need to carb load for 36-48 hours before an endurance race, and aim to ensure carbohydrate intake is between 10-12g per kg bodyweight per day. 

For example, an average adult male weighing 70kg might normally follow a 2000-calorie daily diet. He might usually eat 275g of carbohydrates per day (as per US nutritional recommendations). However, if he were carb loading, our 70kg man would want to consume at least 700g of carbohydrates per day. 

Note that your carb-loading shouldn’t be done in addition to your regular diet. Instead, carbohydrates should increase as an overall proportion of your meals. 

Protein, fibre, and fat

During the week before a race, you’ll want to be conscious of other food groups too. As you’ll notice in our plan, we’ve recommended:

• High protein meals after your final long training run and after the race itself. The goal is to support recovery. 
• Well-balanced meals for most of the week. You want to give your body all the nutrients it needs to perform optimally. 
• Less fibre, protein, and fat on the day before and morning of the race. As Rachel Williams, one of our senior nutritionists, pointed out in a recent Q&A, these food groups can cause gastrointestinal issues during endurance events, so they should be minimised. 

No resistance training

We do not recommend any resistance training in our plan for what to do the week before a race. There are a couple of reasons for this:

• Not necessary: Research shows that, if you’ve already done adequate strength training earlier in your race plan, you’ll retain all the benefits for up to a month - even if you stop lifting weights. Basically, there’s no additional benefit to strength training during taper week.
• Injuries: Strength training increases your chance of having DOMS and possibly even injury (there’s always the risk of dropping a kettlebell on your foot). You may as well avoid this risk. 

Good to know: Guide to Strength Training for Running

Rest is critical

Getting enough sleep is an essential part of any training plan. While you’ll likely be nervous the night before the big day, try and give yourself the best chances of a good night’s sleep by following sleep hygiene best practices. 

We’ve suggested doing other forms of rest and relaxation during taper week. Yoga, saunas, and sports massage can all help release tension and set you up for success. But they’re not essential.

Other factors to consider before race day 

Here are some other suggestions for how to prepare for a race the week before:

• Mental game: Do what works for you. Repeat positive affirmations, visualise the finish line, pack your lucky socks, or prep your race day rituals.
• Route prep: Familiarise yourself with the route. Most events will publish information about the course online, and some big races even provide interactive maps with topographic information (i.e., where the hills are). Following the course on Google Street View can be helpful for getting mentally prepared, too. Knowing where the loo stations are is also a plus.
• Pack your bags: Make sure you have everything you need for the event itself, plus warm-up and recovery gear sorted well in advance. Pack your gels, snacks, recovery drinks, water bottle, earphones, sunnies, suncream, and everything else you need. 
• Plan travel to the race: Work out how you’re getting to the starting line the day before - especially if you’re visiting a new city. You don’t want a mad rush on the morning of the event. 
• Acclimatise: If you’re racing in a place that’s hotter, colder, or at a higher altitude than you’re used to, set aside adequate time to acclimatise the week before a race. 

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Taper week tips

Whether you’re running an ultra, a marathon, or a half-marathon, taper week is an essential stage in every training plan. 

While you should adapt our plan for the week before a race to your personal running style, distance, and goals, it’s based on solid evidence and expertise, and offers a good foundation for your prep. That means you’ll be rested and ready to go when race day comes around. 

Words by Len Williams