by Coach Paul Warloski
You’ve put in the miles, the long rides, the intervals, and the strength training.
Your fitness is built.
Now comes the part that trips up a lot of athletes: the taper.
Here’s the truth: tapering isn’t about gaining fitness.
It’s about shedding fatigue so your body can deliver the fitness you’ve already built.
And for a gravel race that’s going to push you past the six-hour mark, getting this right matters more than you might think.
What Does the Research Actually Say About Tapering?
A fascinating study analyzed training data from over 158,000 recreational marathon runners.
The findings?
Athletes who followed a strict, progressive three-week taper saw a median finish-time improvement of 5 minutes and 32 seconds.
That’s about 2.6 percent faster compared to those with minimal or relaxed tapers.
The key distinction: strict tapers (where training volume progressively decreases week by week) outperformed relaxed tapers (where runners simply reduced volume without a structured approach).
The research also showed that longer tapers of up to three weeks produced better results than shorter one or two-week tapers, especially for recreational athletes.
Translation: a disciplined, gradual reduction in training load matters more than just “doing less.”
The Big Gravel Race Taper: Three Weeks Out
For a gravel race exceeding six hours, your taper will mirror what’s proven for marathoners, with one important adjustment: because you’re building toward a significantly longer effort, you want to preserve endurance slightly more aggressively.
Here’s how to structure the final three weeks:
Taper Three Weeks Out
- Reduce weekly volume by 10-15 percent from your peak training load
- Keep your intensity largely intact. This isn’t the time to go easy on everything
- Your long ride should be 10-20 percent shorter than your peak long ride (e.g., if your biggest training ride was seven hours, aim for 5.5-6 hours at an endurance pace)
- Include one “sharpening” workout mid-week: short, faster efforts (5-10 minutes at threshold) to keep your system firing
Taper Two Weeks Out
- Reduce weekly volume by 25-30 percent from peak
- Drop the long ride entirely—your body doesn’t need another 5+ hour effort
- Keep 2-3 rides per week, each 60-75 percent of normal duration
- Maintain one short session with high-cadence drills and 2-3 short bursts (30-60 seconds at race effort) to keep your muscles primed
- This is where many athletes get nervous. Trust the process. You won’t lose fitness in two weeks—adaptations take 10-14 days to show up, which is exactly why you built this fitness earlier.
Taper Race Week
- Two easy rides totaling 2-3 hours max
- Early in the week, do a short intensity session, like 2×3 minutes of 40/20s with five minutes of rest between sets.
- Day before: 45-90 minute ride with high-cadence spin-outs and 2-3 short accelerations
- The day before your event isn’t for testing anything new. It’s for keeping blood flowing to your muscles and settling your mind
- Your legs should feel ready to go, not tired
The Two Goals of Every Taper Ride
Every ride during your taper should accomplish one of two things—and ideally both:
- Maintain sharpness – Keep your neuromuscular system engaged, your pedal stroke efficient, your cardiovascular system responsive
- Shed fatigue – Allow your muscles to repair, your glycogen stores to fully replenish, and your central nervous system to recover
If a ride isn’t doing either of these, don’t do it.
Easy rides should be genuinely easy.
Sharpening workouts should be short, controlled, and purposeful.
What About Nutrition During the Taper?
This is where athletes often overthink things. Here’s the simple truth: your body needs the energy.
During a taper, you’re burning fewer calories, so you may naturally eat a bit less.
That’s fine.
But don’t restrict carbs deliberately—your body is using this time to stockpile glycogen for race day.
Every gram of glycogen comes with 3-4 grams of water, so you may see a slight increase on the scale.
That’s not fat.
That’s fuel.
The advice from sports nutrition research is clear: don’t count calories or grams during your taper.
Eat quality protein for tissue repair.
Eat complex carbs to top off your glycogen stores.
Stay hydrated.
Trust that your body knows what it needs.
The Mental Game: Why Tapers Feel Harder Than They Are
Here’s what I tell every athlete I coach: the taper is harder mentally than physically.
You’ll feel restless.
You’ll worry you’re losing fitness.
You’ll be tempted to squeeze in “just one more hard ride” because you don’t feel tired enough.
That’s normal, and it’s exactly why a structured, progressive taper works better than winging it.
The research suggests that athletes who follow disciplined tapers perform better.
Why? Because they trust the process.
They don’t panic when they feel sluggish in week two.
They know the goal is to arrive at the start line with fresh legs and full tanks—not to prove they can still crush intervals.
If the taper is making you anxious, that’s a signal to revisit your confidence in your training.
If you did the work, trust the work.
The fitness is there.
Your job now is simply to let it express itself.
Final Checklist: The Three Weeks Before Your 6+ Hour Gravel Race
| Weeks Out | Focus | Key Actions |
| Three | Maintain fitness, begin reducing load | 10-15 percent volume reduction, one sharpening workout, 10-20 percent shorter long ride |
| Two | Sharpen, shed fatigue | 25-30 percent volume reduction, no long ride, one short session with bursts |
| One | Arrive fresh, settle nerves | 2-3 hours total riding, 45-90 min day-before ride with high-cadence drills |
Ready to Execute?
The taper is where disciplined athletes separate themselves from those who leave performance on the table.
You’ve built the engine.
Now it’s time to tune it, fuel it, and show up ready to ride.
If you want help structuring your specific taper plan,or want someone to talk you off the ledge when week two of the taper feels “off,” that’s exactly what coaching is for.
Let’s talk about your goals and how we can make sure you’re not just fit, but ready on race day.
Three Things You Should Know About Tapering For a Long Gravel Race
- Tapering isn’t about gaining fitness. It’s about shedding the fatigue that’s masking the fitness you’ve already built.
- A strict, progressive three-week taper (not a random reduction in mileage) is what research links to meaningful race-day improvements.
- The hardest part of tapering isn’t the riding. It’s trusting the process when your legs feel restless, and your brain starts second-guessing your training.
Need More?
Unlock the secrets to mastering gravel racing with our FREE Guide to Gravel Racing! Get yours here.
BOOK A CALL so we can discuss your goals, answer questions, and talk about making your endurance training more effective, fun, and Simple.
Paul Warloski is a:
- USA Cycling Level 1 Advanced Certified Coach
- RRCA Running Coach
- Training Peaks Level 2 Coach
- RYT-200 Yoga Instructor
- Certified Personal Trainer
- Certified Nutrition Advisor
