Taper Calculator

A taper is the volume cut you make in the last weeks before a race so you show up rested instead of cooked. Done right, it sheds the fatigue you have been carrying without touching the fitness you spent months building. The calculator above takes your peak weekly volume and the taper length you want, then hands you the volume to hit each week.

What the taper does

The fitness is already banked. The work is done. What is left is fatigue sitting on top of it, masking the form you have. A taper lifts that fatigue off by dropping training volume while keeping the parts that hold fitness in place.

• Peak weekly volume: your hardest normal week, in hours or kilometers, the load you taper down from.
• Taper length: 1, 2, or 3 weeks, depending on how much volume you carry and how far out the race is.
• What stays: frequency and intensity. You train the same number of days and keep some efforts at race pace. You only cut the total amount.

A 1-week taper suits a short, low-volume block. Two to three weeks fits a marathon or a long ride where the training load runs deep.

Reading your weekly numbers

The calculator drops volume in steps as the race nears. For a 3-week taper it steps down to roughly 70% of peak, then 50%, then 35% in race week, with frequency and intensity held. So a 10-hour peak week becomes about 7 hours, then 5, then 3 and a half.

Keep the sessions short and sharp. A 60-minute run with a few minutes at race pace beats a flat 90-minute plod. The pace touches keep your legs sharp; the lower volume lets you recover. Frequency holds so the rhythm of training never breaks.

The mistake everyone makes

Nerves tell you to do more. The race is close, you feel fresh, and a voice says one more hard session will help. It will not. The fitness is set weeks before race day, and a big effort inside the taper only adds fatigue you cannot clear in time.

Trust the cut. Resist adding new workouts, new distances, or test efforts to prove you are ready. If you track training load on Garmin or Apple Health, watch the line come down and let it. Fresh legs win races. Tired legs that did extra do not.

For the full breakdown of how taper length and intensity fit together, read the how to taper guide.