Tapering for Peak Performance in HYROX
You might have heard the term “peaking,” but have no idea what it means. Simply put, peaking for a race means reducing your training load and/or volume to showcase your best performance on game day.
Imagine the following – you’ve been training hard for a few months and you train intensely right until the last day. You start the race, aching, still slightly sore, but satisfied because you’ve put in the hard work (like the badass that you are). You then run your race, but you perform terribly.
You wonder why weeks of hard work didn’t get you the PB (personal best) you wanted.
The answer is that you walked into that race with all the fatigue that you’ve built up from training and your performance suffered as a result of that fatigue.
Performance = Fitness - Fatigue
You need to put in the hard work over several weeks or months to improve your fitness, but with hard training comes fatigue, which you'll want to get rid of for optimal performance.
That's the concept of "peaking" – reducing your training, or "tapering," after a hard training block so that you can be in the best possible physical condition to race.
Not only will your performance shine as your fatigue dissipates, but I also believe in the "race day" effect – there's an extra 5-10% of intensity and endurance that you can tap into on the day, a mental and physical place that you don't normally touch during training. But without tapering/peaking, you won’t be able to showcase this.
It can be tempting to train hard up until the last minute to try to maximise any gain in fitness... don’t do that! By race week, the work is done and you need to focus on removing any fatigue that has accumulated from training.
How to taper:
Everyone recovers differently, but these are my tips for peaking and for race week.
Your hardest training session (such as any hard compromised runs or HYROX simulations) should be at least a week before your race.
5-6 days out from your race:
Reduce the volume in your training sessions by 30 to 40 percent. You don't want to accumulate any more fatigue, but you still want some training stimulus to avoid detraining. For example, if you usually do an interval run session of 12 rounds, do 8 rounds; instead of a 10km run, do a 6-7km run.
Caveat – if you haven't had much time to train (oops), then you haven't accumulated much fatigue when it comes to race week and you can probably afford to train hard until just a couple of days before your race.
Maintain intensity in your training – don't just do Zone 2 work – but keep these to shorter and/or fewer intervals.
Cut out or reduce any heavy resistance training to make sure you don't get any muscle fatigue or DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).
2 days from your race:
Either rest, or do short sessions that will not introduce any fatigue or soreness.
Examples: an easy 20-30 minute run, or a short 20-30 minute interval session (running, cycling, or on the ergs). Do these if you have nervous energy, otherwise rest.
What to focus on during race week:
Set yourself up for good sleep.
Prioritise early nights and good sleep hygiene, like limiting caffeine and alcohol.
You might feel race nerves, so do whatever you can to ease your mind, whether that's going for an evening walk, meditation or reading before bed.
Plan out your race day logistics ahead of time to minimise stress on race day.
This includes knowing what time and how to get to the venue, what you will wear and what you need to bring with you.
Be familiar with the race and have a race plan.
Check out this article on race strategy.
Decide what you will eat on race day ahead of time and try it early in the week; avoid trying new foods overall.
If your race is in the morning, a pre-race meal should include easy-to-digest carbohydrates, like toast with jam or peanut butter, or oatmeal with fruit and honey.
If your race is later in the day, aim to eat a meal 2-3 hours before, or have a snack 1-2 hours before.
In the 2 days to your race:
Reduce your intake of greasy / junk food and high-fibre foods (e.g. broccoli, lentils) – you want to minimise digestive discomfort and bloating going into race day. The same goes for anything like dairy that might trigger gastric discomfort for you.
Prioritise easy-digesting carbohydrates like rice, pasta and fruit. Some people like to "carb load" to fill up glycogen stores. But if you're tapering and not exhausting yourself, then this will happen anyway if you're eating enough (you definitely should not be in a deficit just before a race!), so I would advise eating a normal amount – at maintenance or just above – rather than over-eating and feeling bloated.
Just in case you need to hear it again – the work is done! Trust the process, stick to your plan and go get that PB!
If you need more help, reach out to me for online coaching or get in contact for more information.
