How to Build the Perfect Taper

In the last episode, we explained why tapering works.

This week, Cliff Pittman shows you how to actually build one. Learn how much to reduce training, what to keep in your program, and why the biggest mistake athletes make isn't in training, it's reacting to the taper itself.

HOST

Cliff Pittman is the Coaching Development Director at CTS, leading the Ultrarunning and Cycling Coaching staff with a specialty in guiding athletes from first-time ultrarunners to elite competitors at races like Western States 100, Leadville 100, and the Triple Crown of 200s. A competitive trail and ultra athlete himself, Cliff brings firsthand experience and a rare ability to turn complex training science into simple, actionable coaching.

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Transcript

Why Tapering Gains Matter

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In the last video, we covered the science and research on tapering, what it actually does, why it works, and why a 2-3% modest performance gain matters more than most athletes give it credit for. Today we're gonna get practical. How long your taper should actually be, what to protect during it, and the mental trap that causes most athletes to blow it up in the final two weeks. I'm Cliff Pittman, Director of Coaching at CTS. I work with athletes from first-time ultrarunners to world-class professionals competing on the biggest stages in the sport. Now

Choosing Your Taper Length

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let's start with duration because the honest answer is that there isn't just one number. If you don't have your own taper history yet, then start with three weeks for a 100 miler and a two-week taper for a 50k or 50 miler. Now that's the safe default. Some athletes genuinely sharpen faster and only need 7 to 10 days. But that's something you earn with experience, not something that you assume on your first taper. If you're unsure which one you are, default to a longer taper. The downside of a slightly longer taper is very small, but the downside of cutting it too short is showing up to your race too tired to use the fitness that you spent months building. Now let's

The Volume Cut That Works

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talk about what actually happens once the taper starts because this is where most of the confusion lives. Volume is the primary lever, and the model that holds up best in the research is the fast decay exponential model. Cut hard two weeks out and then cut again race week, with the second cut the same or smaller than the first. So week one of the taper, that's usually 40 to 50% off of your peak week. Race week drops again, another 50% off that already reduced number. Using round numbers, if you're peaking at 15 hours a week, week one of your taper lands around seven and a half to nine hours. And then race week drops again to somewhere around four to five hours. The exact numbers will vary by athlete, but the shape stays the same. Big cut first, smaller cut second. You're not holding on to one reduced level and camping out there. You're continuing to taper as race day gets closer. And no, you don't need to build a spreadsheet to hit this exactly. Are you still training enough to hold on to your fitness that you built while showing up to race day with fresh legs? That's the entire goal. So don't overcomplicate it.

Keep Intensity While Doing Less

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Now intensity works differently. And this is one of the most important things to get right. You reduce the time at intensity. Fewer minutes, fewer intervals, but you don't reduce the type of intensity itself. If threshold work has been part of your race-specific training leading into the taper, it stays part of your taper. You're just doing less of it. Don't drop the type of intensity entirely, or you're not tapering anymore, you're just detraining. And calling it a taper doesn't change what it is. So frequency should also barely move. If you run five days a week, keep running five days a week. You shrink the sessions, don't cut the amount of days. Strength work is worth calling out specifically because it's the first thing people cut out completely, and I believe that's a mistake. If you've been lifting through your build, don't drop it to zero the moment that you start tapering. Keep the same movements, just less volume, and maybe less load. The point isn't to gain anything new here, it's to hold on to the strength and durability that you've already built. If you cut it out entirely and you lose ground that you spent months earning for absolutely no reason. One more piece briefly because I've got a full video on it. Heat adaptation decays faster than most people realize. Faster than fitness does. So the taper is not the time to drop heat exposure completely either. If you've been doing heat work and your outside environment isn't already hot, keep some of it going at a lower dose, the same way that you're maintaining strength. I go deep on the specifics, timing, dosage, all of it in my heat training video. Links on the screen if you want the full breakdown.

Taper Tantrums And Tracking Data

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Now, the part that actually derails more athletes than any of this is the taper tantrum. Alright, it's part physical, part psychological. If you cut your training back and your legs start to feel flat and restless, then some athletes feel like their fitness is just disappearing in real time. And then the mind starts running around the house like a toddler carrying a sharp knife. Here's the shift I want you to make in how you think about that feeling. It's not just something to push through, it's data to inform future decisions. Feeling flat a few days into your taper is completely expected. It's residual fatigue that hasn't quite cleared yet. That's not detraining, and it's not a reason to panic either. But if that flatness is still there right before race day, that's a different signal, and it's exactly the kind of thing worth writing down. Document how you felt and when every time you taper. Athletes who track this over multiple tapers stop guessing at what they need because they start knowing it. What you shouldn't do is react to the early flat feeling by sneaking in a hard session in order to feel sharp again. That single decision is what undoes an otherwise well-built taper. And just like that, your 2-3% gain turns into zero or even worse.

Simple Rules And Final Reminders

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Here's where this lands. There's no universal taper length. Default to longer taper if you don't have your own data yet. That's the conservative move, not a failure of confidence. Cut volume hard and early, cut it again race week. And stop treating the exact percentage like it's sacred. Keep the type of intensity intact, just less of it, and maintain your frequency. Also, don't drop strength or heat work to zero, just scale them down. And that flat feeling, when it shows up, it isn't a warning sign. It's information for next time. Simple does not mean easy. Trusting the process when your legs are telling you otherwise is the hard part. If you missed part one, go back and watch it. The research behind why tapering works is the foundation everything in this video builds on. And if you want to taper built specifically around your race and training history, visit trainwright.com to connect with the CTS coach and subscribe for more coach driven ultra running education.