|   Is tapering for everyone? | Jrm
Jan 8, 2003 7:26 AM | | I consider myself a recreational cyclist. Can i benefit from tapering before big rides or the occassional race? Is there a method i should follow in order to practice tapering? Does it require that i have a particular level of maintained fitness?
Thanks for the responses.. |
| depends | Radar MCM #35
Jan 8, 2003 1:56 PM | | First of all you have to have the appropriate build of fitness before the taper. Also, there's different tapers. Just doing short easy rides for the week before the race has been shown to give you some rest, but not give you optimal performance.
What has been shown to produce peak performance is for 7-14 days before your important event, do a workout (after good warmup) that mimics the intensity of your event, just for a shorter time period. This keeps your body used to the intensity but make sure you don't get too tired out. These workouts should be 3-4 days apart with only very easy rides in between. This is all of it in a nutshell, and oh yeah, you can't peak very often because otherwise you will just keep losing fitness.
Radar MCM #35 |
| How much taper for a 24 hour race solo? | Flat top
Jan 9, 2003 7:15 AM | | When do I start backing off the kilometres? Six weeks before the event or two? |
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