149: How to Taper Well for a Race or Competition

In this episode, I break down how I approach tapering for big efforts, especially an Ironman. We talk about pulling back volume and intensity without losing fitness, handling the mental itch to keep pushing, and why that restraint actually sets you up to win. I also walk through how I set up my carb load to top off muscle glycogen so I’m not leaving anything on the table. I share what’s worked, what hasn’t, and the practical strategies I use so you show up on race day. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 01:15 The Importance of Tapering 03:46 Defining a Taper 06:40 Benefits of a Proper Taper 18:34 Common Mistakes During Tapering 29:11 Setting Up a Proper Taper 33:10 Tapering Training Volume 35:21 Race Week Training Schedule 36:26 Experiencing the Taper 46:35 Carbohydrate Loading Strategy 58:28 Final Thoughts on Tapering and Carb Loading ORDER MY BOOK HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFE https://bpn.team/member IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Nick Bare?

  Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today is all about tapering, how to taper for a race or a competition, as well as how to carbohydrate load in preparation for a race or competition, being a big endurance effort.

• 0:30Nick Bare?

  Now, I'm in a taper right now for Ironman Arizona, which is in three days. At the time of this recording, it is Thursday, November 13th, 2025. I race this Sunday. I've put in an 18-week prep for Ironman Arizona, and it was a big prep. As I've talked about many times before, my training was anywhere from 19 to 22 hours a week. Running mileage was between 60 and 65 miles a week. I topped out at 65 miles a week, and that was two weeks ago, two or three weeks ago. So it was a big effort.

• 1:15Nick Bare?

  There's a lot of training, and I have found over the years with all the different races and competitions that I've done, that a taper can make a big difference, actually. And there's ways to do a taper right. There's definitely ways to do a taper wrong. But at the end of the day, a taper, which we're going to get into here, I'm probably going to say the word taper many, many times throughout this episode, so to just be prepared for that. But a taper is very specific to an individual, but even more so, it is specific to the prep.

• 1:59Nick Bare?

  If you put in a huge block of training, and you've accumulated a lot of volume, intensity, you're carrying a lot of fatigue, the taper is going to be more important and more beneficial, as opposed to if you just put, you know, a lighter, shorter, intense, volume-driven prep in preparation for a race or competition. And I have a little, little subtitle here for this episode and it's, it's a question. Can you endure the taper?

• 2:38Nick Bare?

  Because the taper, for any of you who has experienced one before, or has done one right, it is commonly more mentally challenging than anything else in the prep.

• 2:56Nick Bare?

  And we'll get into to why and how. But the question I want to pose for you guys to kind of just think on throughout this episode is, can you endure the taper?

• 3:10Nick Bare?

  Going back to this conversation I had with Pastor Lyle Phillips a few years ago,

• 3:17Nick Bare?

  he, he posed the question, can you do your job?

• 3:22Nick Bare?

  Can you do your job and then do it correctly? And be committed to doing your job? In my opinion, part of a very successful prep

• 3:36Nick Bare?

  is the taper. That is part of your job within the prep. Can you do your job? Can you taper well? Can you taper strong? Now, what is a taper?

• 3:49Nick Bare?

  A taper is a planned reduction in training volume and/or intensity, typically both, before a major event, being a race or competition.

• 4:02Nick Bare?

  And it allows your body to recover from accumulated fatigue while also maintaining your level of fitness. So you can perform at your physical and mental peak come race or competition day. The way that I like to think about it is, how do I show up race day? As fit? As healthy? As fresh? As possible?

• 4:33Nick Bare?

  Like I mentioned, the taper is mentally challenging and we'll get into why. But when I've done a taper right, I show up race day, I toe that line and I have springs in my legs. I have, I have springs in my body. I am so just charged up, ready to just full send.

• 5:04Nick Bare?

  And when I show up feeling like that, I know that I put in a really solid block of training and I've tapered well to show up fit, fresh and healthy to lay down the best performance possible. A lot of people who don't taper right or taper well,

• 5:26Nick Bare?

  they accumulate all this fatigue and I say they, but I've also been in the situation before. I've, I've done this wrong. I've, I've tapered incorrectly before. You put in this huge block of training and you accumulate all this fatigue. You're carrying this fatigue in your legs, your entire body, your central nervous system. You're not recovered and you've built this fitness. But there's this blunting effect on that fitness because you're carrying so much fatigue that when you come race day or competition day,

• 6:06Nick Bare?

  you can't achieve your full athletic potential because that fatigue that you're carrying isn't allow you to really utilize your fitness. You want to build fitness and then be able to utilize the fitness that you've built. But if you're trying to, to go into a race or competition, fatigued.

• 6:32Nick Bare?

  You're not really able to test your true athletic, physical capabilities and performance. So I believe that a taper is,

• 6:44Nick Bare?

  like I said, a critical component of a successful build or prep. And when done correctly, you show up race day feeling like a million bucks, feeling so good mentally, physically, your central nervous system is recovered, it's primed, and you're ready to throw down. Now, I think back to one of my most successful preps, races, tapers, builds, performance. It was my last marathon at the California International Marathon, where I ran two hours, 39 minutes.

• 7:26Nick Bare?

  And I will never forget this feeling where I was in the corral, waiting for the race to start. It was brisk, it was cool. Like I said, I put in a great prep, working alongside Coach Jeff Cunningham.

• 7:44Nick Bare?

  Nutrition was dialed, the taper was executed flawlessly. I was, I was carved up, I was fueled up for that race. And I was standing in the crowd, waiting for the gun to go off. And I had so much built up energy within my body that it, it felt like it wanted to just rip out of my skin. I could feel this, this potential in my legs, in my arms, within my mind. I mean, I was standing in that crowd, and it's so hard to, to describe if you've never experienced it before.

• 8:28Nick Bare?

  But you just want to plench your fists and scream and sprint because you're so excited, you're so proud of the work that's been put in. But you're, you're fit, healthy, and fresh.

• 8:45Nick Bare?

  To go throw down, in this case for the next 26.2 miles, to run as fast and sustainable and hard as possible to experience and achieve the best time you possibly can. That's the goal. Now, the benefits of a taper, if done correctly. Again, this is something that you will refine over time and through experience. It's pretty rare that you get your taper and your carbohydrate load and your prep and your build dialed in perfectly for your first race or competition.

• 9:29Nick Bare?

  But over time, with more experience, more repetitions, it becomes more refined. You learn more through the process. It gets better and better and better. And at this point, my prep process, my training, my nutrition, my taper, my carbohydrate load plan, it's all so dialed from years of repetition and experience and trial and effort and finding things that work and what doesn't work. So if, if you're going after your first race and you don't have the perfect build or prep and you don't have the perfect taper and you don't have the perfect carbohydrate load plan, that's okay. You'll learn from it and you'll do it better the next time. So just keep that in mind.

• 10:14Nick Bare?

  But the benefits, we want to reduce fatigue, as I've mentioned, both physically and mentally, to show up race day primed, absolutely primed. We want to allow full muscle repair because over the previous weeks or months, we have broken down a lot of muscle. We've put our bodies through extreme stressors through training and fatigue. So during the taper, we want to allow for full muscle repair. We want to increase and optimize muscle glycogen restoration. So muscle glycogen, this is how your your body stores carbohydrates.

• 10:57Nick Bare?

  That can be utilized during long endurance efforts, which we'll get into when we talk about the carbohydrate load plan.

• 11:04Nick Bare?

  Right now, I am three days out, as I mentioned, from Ironman Arizona. This is the first day of my carb load. I will consume about 800 grams of carbs today. Tomorrow, I'll consume another 800 grams of carbs. So I like to carbohydrate load three and two days out from a race, which we'll get into. But that's that's part of the taper. That's one of the benefits is to increase and optimize muscle glycogen restoration.

• 11:35Nick Bare?

  Because, so a little side note here, when we're in a big prep and a big build, we're consuming a lot of nutrition. We're consuming a lot of energy, a lot of calories, a lot of carbohydrates when it comes to especially an endurance effort. But because we're burning so much of that up, our muscles are very rarely fully topped off on muscle glycogen because we're depleting them through training. But during the taper, as volume of training is reduced, we actually have the opportunity to top off our muscle glycogen stores. And then an additional benefit of the taper is to optimize nervous system readiness.

• 12:19Nick Bare?

  So that is our essential nervous system or CNS. Our CNS gets taxed pretty heavily during a big prep and a big build. And that's just because of the volume of training, the intensity, the effort, the demands that it puts on our body.

• 12:37Nick Bare?

  This is one of the reasons that as you get deeper into a prep or a build, you're probably going to start experiencing accumulated fatigue mentally and physically. This is one of the reasons that you should incorporate deload weeks into your training protocols and builds that allows for some of this central nervous system recovery. But I am now feeling just like the restoration of my central nervous system after 17 and a half weeks of really hard work. So I'm experiencing all of these benefits right now.

• 13:18Nick Bare?

  Being seven days into my 10 day taper.

• 13:24Nick Bare?

  I have reduced fatigue both physically and mentally. I feel that my muscles are repairing. Muscle glycogen is topping off. I'm gaining a little bit of weight in the taper. That's normal. We'll get into that. And central nervous system wise, I can just feel is recovering finally after many weeks of of a prep. So those are the benefits of a taper.

• 13:54Nick Bare?

  Question, how long should a taper be?

• 13:59Nick Bare?

  And this is again, where it comes down to the individual. It depends on the length of your training prep or build and the amount of fatigue you're carrying. It's unique to each athlete, individual and experience. But for me personally, I enjoy a 10 day taper. Now, there's, there's so many different thoughts and ideas around the length of the taper. And this is one of the reasons that I wanted to record this podcast episode. As I was just doing a little bit of research, I was curious, you know, how much information

• 14:38Nick Bare?

  is available online through podcasts, articles, YouTube videos on how to taper? Because when I talk to athletes, especially athletes who are newer to racing and competition, who might not have as much experience. They don't know how to taper. And I wanted to really break down just how important I believe it is. Now, there's, there's people who

• 15:08Nick Bare?

  do three week tapers. There's people who do two week, 14 day tapers. There are some people who do five day tapers. I've experimented with a bunch of different lengths and durations. And for me personally, this might work for you too. I have found that a 10 day taper works very well. Anything longer than that feels a bit much. And I feel a little sluggish come race day. And anything shorter than that doesn't feel like enough time to shed the fatigue. Now, I will say, right before the taper started,

• 15:51Nick Bare?

  I was carrying a lot of fatigue, both physically and mentally.

• 15:58Nick Bare?

  And I was very much looking forward to this taper starting. Cause I knew I would just come back to life. My legs, my legs were very, very heavy towards the end of this, this prep. And it almost gets to the point sometimes where,

• 16:18Nick Bare?

  you know,

• 16:20Nick Bare?

  I wake up and I see my training for the day. This was towards the end of prep before the taper started. There was never a day where I was going to question whether or not I was going to do the workouts or not. But you do get to a point where you're carrying so much fatigue physically and mentally that you don't enjoy the workouts anymore. Like runs didn't feel good at, at one point towards the end of the prep. Because all this fatigue was accumulating physically, mentally, central nervous system was, was taxed towards the end. So I was looking forward to the taper, knowing that I would come back to life.

• 17:03Nick Bare?

  So if you're carrying a lot of fatigue towards the end of a prep, like this, this taper can be so beneficial.

• 17:12Nick Bare?

  And for me personally, I enjoy 10 days.

• 17:17Nick Bare?

  10 days, it feels like forever.

• 17:21Nick Bare?

  I'm one day, I guess, seven of the taper. And I feel like I've been in this block of training for four weeks at this point. You start to lose your mind a little bit because you start questioning your fitness. Am I ready? Am I losing fitness? Am I getting slower? Am I going to be able to perform come race day? And I'll share, you know, like I said, why it's mentally challenging to taper for 10 days or towards the end of a big training block. But it makes a big difference. You're carrying a lot of fatigue, whether you know it or not.

• 18:01Nick Bare?

  And when you get deeper into the taper, it's like this, this light bulb goes off and your your mind opens and you realize how much fatigue you've actually been carrying throughout the last couple of weeks and maybe even months. When you start to shed some of this fatigue, it's like, oh, this is what normal feels like. I forgot what normal and being rested and refreshed and alive feels like again because I've just been at it for so many weeks and months at this point.

• 18:34Nick Bare?

  Some things to avoid during a taper. One, training too much.

• 18:42Nick Bare?

  If you're going to taper, you have to ask yourself the question, like I started this episode, can you do your job? Can you endure the taper? Because what happens with so many people, and I've been here before, you get into the taper, volume starts decreasing, intensity starts decreasing a little bit, not as much as volume.

• 19:08Nick Bare?

  And you start to question yourself, am I losing fitness? Am I wasting all the work that's been done these last couple of months?

• 19:18Nick Bare?

  So what commonly happens, and I've done this, you start sneaking in extra training sessions to test your fitness, just to make sure it's still there.

• 19:30Nick Bare?

  This is what happens when you don't trust the plan. Trust the process, trust the plan. It's really easy that when you get in the taper, you start questioning the process, you start questioning the plan, and you start increasing training volume again because you're afraid that you're losing your fitness. Rest assured, you're not losing fitness.

• 19:54Nick Bare?

  You're allowing that fitness to be exposed with rest. So a big mistake is that people kick off a taper and they reintroduce volume because they're afraid they're losing fitness.

• 20:12Nick Bare?

  A second thing to avoid, neglecting nutrition.

• 20:18Nick Bare?

  You've been in this big training block in, in build for months now. You've been expending a lot of energy, a lot of calories, you're burning a lot of calories. There were days in this prep where I was burning 5,000 to 6,000 calories on some of these big training days.

• 20:38Nick Bare?

  Something to avoid during the taper is that so many people are afraid to gain weight within the taper, which I understand, I get it.

• 20:48Nick Bare?

  But you cannot neglect nutrition during the taper. So what happens to a lot of people, and again, I've made this mistake.

• 20:57Nick Bare?

  You end up cutting your calories significantly

• 21:01Nick Bare?

  because you're not expending as much energy. You don't want to gain weight, so you cut your calories by too much, which doesn't allow your body to recover, and then come race day, you are still depleted and you're not recovered or rested, and now you're trying to perform in race or compete as a depleted athlete. You still have to prioritize nutrition, chloro consumption, hydration, water.

• 21:36Nick Bare?

  Sleep during the taper. Don't neglect nutrition.

• 21:42Nick Bare?

  Don't cut calories by too much.

• 21:45Nick Bare?

  I personally like to keep my caloric intake pretty similar during the taper as it was during training. And you'll gain a few pounds. It's okay. It's okay. Uh, but I'd rather be fully rested and recovered and healed and sitting a little heavier. And I'm saying a little heavier. It's like two pounds as opposed to under recovered and depleted so that I can't perform.

• 22:16Nick Bare?

  Another mistake is that people will start filling the empty space

• 22:23Nick Bare?

  within their day or their calendar with new activities. You know, when it comes to an Ironman prep, for example,

• 22:33Nick Bare?

  most days at a minimum, I was training three hours a day.

• 22:39Nick Bare?

  And there were days where I was training six hours a day. These big brick workouts, bikes and runs. But on a pretty average day throughout prep, it was three hours of training a day. When you decrease training volume going into the taper for those last 10 days in my case, there's a lot of empty space on, on your calendar. And as you start getting deeper in the taper and your mental energy comes back, your physical energy comes back, it's really easy to want to fill that empty space with new activities. I've been tempted with that in this, this prep and this taper alone.

• 23:22Nick Bare?

  I haven't done much strength training throughout the last 17 and a half weeks. Next week, I'll start reincorporating strength training again after the race is over, which I'm super excited for. But this week in particular. I had a lot more empty space in my calendar. Training volume was decreased significantly. And I started thinking, well, maybe I should just like go into the gym and hit a few strength workouts, which is the last thing I should be doing. You know, I haven't prioritized strength training in the last seventeen and a half weeks. And the thought process of going into the gym and hitting a hard workout so then I'm sore and incorporating muscles that I haven't used in a meaningful way for months.

• 24:06Nick Bare?

  Horrible idea. Horrible idea. But it's really easy to want to fill that empty space with different activities. You'll see it with people where they're in their taper. They're not training as much. They go play a sports game with friends. They're playing, uh, you know, a flag football game or they go to the basketball court and they're running up and down the court for one to two hours. They end up getting hurt. But more importantly, they are, you are, and I've been there, not letting your body actually rest and recover, which is the main intent and point of the taper.

• 24:49Nick Bare?

  Don't try to add in extra cross-training activities to make up for what you're pulling back from. It's counterproductive to what we're actually trying to achieve within the taper. And the last thing to avoid is over-analyzing the taper. The taper is extremely physically beneficial. But like I said, it is mentally challenging. Because after training so much for so many weeks and months, when you start reducing volume, it's going to feel like you are lazy and you are losing your fitness. But it is part of the process.

• 25:35Nick Bare?

  Something that I have experienced with every fitness prep I've done the last couple of years, it's like clockwork. And if you, if you Google this and search this online, it is not just me. There are so many athletes who experience this phantom pains and injuries.

• 25:53Nick Bare?

  They always start like two weeks out from a race where it's around a whole prep and build. You know, you're constantly trying to, to recover and, and problem solve these small little tweaks and minor injuries that just pop up. You know, there's something in the entire prep. It's either you got a tight calf or you have a little pull in a hamstring or you have foot problems. Like there's always something throughout a prep that you're trying to just like walk through and navigate and put a Band-Aid on so it doesn't get too out

• 26:35Nick Bare?

  of control. But like clockwork, two weeks out from any race, there's always this phantom pain or injury that pops up. And I believe that it's not actually an injury or a pain that you're experiencing. I think part of it's just like the psychological warfare of being closer to your race. When you're, when you're further out from a race and you start experiencing injuries, you know, you have time to work through it. And that just give it a few weeks, you can work around it, it'll heal. The closer you get to race day,

• 27:17Nick Bare?

  that margin of error becomes smaller and smaller and smaller. And for me, when I'm two weeks out, I know that if I get an injury or something goes wrong, I probably don't have enough time to fix it or allow it to heal.

• 27:32Nick Bare?

  Like clockwork, two weeks out from Ironman Arizona, I woke up one morning and my calf was killing me. And it was so tight on my runs. I had Dr. Jordan Tittle here, who comes into the office every Tuesday to work on the team. He was working on my calf. And a few days later, it just goes away, just disappears. I do think that part of that is also that you become more aware of the small little tweaks and injuries and things that hurt that you're experiencing. Because you know, you're so close to the race and you just want it to be perfect. It's like any, I woke up one morning with

• 28:19Nick Bare?

  a sore throat. And I'm just thinking, okay, this is going to lead to

• 28:24Nick Bare?

  bronchitis or pneumonia, or you just think, you start thinking of the worst possible case scenario. And you start getting in your head. So don't overanalyze the taper. And if you start feeling these phantom injuries or pains, just know that many athletes experiences, the closer you get to race day. Like I said, for me, it's two weeks out. Two weeks out from a race, something flares up. I start to overanalyze it. I start to freak out thinking that I'm not going to be able to make the race day. And then it just disappears and I don't think about it ever again. Right now, as I'm sitting here, I don't feel anything in my calf. Two weeks ago, I felt like my calf was on the verge of tearing.

• 29:11Nick Bare?

  Okay, so how do we set up a proper taper? Again, this is just the way that I approach it. There's many different ways and you'll probably refine your plan as you experiment with different things.

• 29:26Nick Bare?

  I don't like to drop off volume and intensity too much, too fast. So it's really like this, this stair stepper approach. Where I'll slowly start pulling back on training volume. I like to keep intensity in there, but just at lower volumes. And then those last couple of days, really pulling out intensity and reducing volume significantly. So it's this gradual reduction in volume and intensity. For those 10 days as opposed to like this hard cutoff. And you're just doing this bare minimum work 10 days out. It's this slow gradual. So for example,

• 30:10Nick Bare?

  this Saturday, this past Saturday, which put me at eight days out from,

• 30:19Nick Bare?

  from Ironman Arizona, I did my last long run. That was 10 miles. And then Sunday, no running. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I ran five miles.

• 30:35Nick Bare?

  This morning, being Thursday, I did four miles. Tomorrow, Friday, I won't run at all. Saturday, I'll do a two and a half mile shakeout. So as you can see, just in my running, and I've done the same thing with cycling and swimming. It's this slow gradual reduction in volume and intensity.

• 30:59Nick Bare?

  Within the taper, you want to prioritize sleep. Now, we should always be trying to prioritize sleep. But if you're in a similar situation as I am,

• 31:11Nick Bare?

  for the last 17 and a half weeks. Unfortunately, sleep, a lot of times, just didn't get prioritized.

• 31:22Nick Bare?

  Because of responsibilities and demands of life. Got a three-year-old daughter, got a one-year-old son. I have my beautiful wife, Steph, full-time job. There's a lot going on. Sometimes, sleep is unfortunately, one of the things that gets sacrificed first. To prioritize other parts of my life. But in those last 10 days, I try to prioritize sleep as much as possible. Go to sleep earlier. Wake up a little later, which is also easier to do when I'm not running as much in the morning. Even if it's just sleeping in an extra 30 minutes.

• 32:05Nick Bare?

  But what I try to do is go to bed as early as possible to get seven to eight hours of sleep. In that last 10 days of the prep.

• 32:17Nick Bare?

  I like to prioritize mobility, stretching, massage, sauna, cold plunge. Even though I'm not training as much, I still want to keep moving my body. You know, like they say, motion is lotion.

• 32:34Nick Bare?

  I like to keep moving my body so that it doesn't get stiff and tired and sore. So I'm still sauna and cold plunge every day. More stretching, more mobility work. Getting work done, like I said, by Dr. Jordan Tittle once a week, and that is chiropractic, that is dry needling, that is soft tissue work, stretching, myofascial release. I find that to be extremely beneficial. You can, you can bring this back in in a meaningful way during the taper. Especially because you're gonna have more time not training as much.

• 33:12Nick Bare?

  The way that I've approached kind of training volume the last couple of weeks, so three weeks out. I had my last 20-plus hour training week. So it's 21 weeks of training.

• 33:24Nick Bare?

  Two weeks out, which was last week, there was a 15-hour training week. And then this week, being race week, is an eight-hour training week. Again, stair stepper approach, gradual reduction in the volume and intensity. 21 hours, 15 hours, eight hours.

• 33:47Nick Bare?

  For my 10 day taper plan specifically, I'll share this. Uh, my last super long run, you know, I said I got it a 10 mile long run, eight days out. I don't really consider that a long run. Uh, my last like big marathon structured workout. I did a 22 miler, 18 days out, 18 days out from the race. My last long bike, which is a four hour bike was two weeks, 14 days out. And then for 10 days out, I reduced training load, training volume by 40 to 60%.

• 34:31Nick Bare?

  But what I like to do is maintain my regular training schedule, but just reduce the volume of workouts. So maintain the frequency throughout this entire prep.

• 34:45Nick Bare?

  Every Monday I hit the same, not exact workouts, but I knew like Monday was a bike in a run. And this is typically when I did my, my big bike and runs, like four to six hour training days. And then Tuesdays was always a run and a swim. Wednesday was always a, a run and a bike. And this was typically when I did my sweet spot session bikes, two plus hours long. So I like to keep that same structure throughout the taper. It's just reduced volume intensity. So this week, the last week leading up to the race, uh, Monday was a six mile run.

• 35:30Nick Bare?

  I mean, I said earlier, I did a five mile run. I guess it was a six mile run. Monday, six mile run, one hour endurance bike, 20 minute core strength workout. Tuesday, five mile run, one hour swim. Wednesday, five mile run, one hour recovery bike, 20 minute core strength. This is where I really reduced the power that I was putting out on the bike.

• 35:55Nick Bare?

  Thursday, four mile run, one hour swim. Friday, tomorrow is a complete off day. Saturday will be a two and a half mile shakeout run. And then Sunday is race day.

• 36:12Nick Bare?

  So it's still a significant amount of training. But it's a reduced training load by 40 to 60% compared to what I was doing at the peak of my build and prep. So what should you expect to experience during a taper? I just want to share some of what I've experienced in the past and typically can expect when I go into a taper. To hopefully provide you guys some confidence that if you're going into one of your first tapers for a race or competition and you start feeling these things, you just know that it is normal. Initially, I actually feel more tired and my legs feel heavier.

• 36:59Nick Bare?

  Mental energy starts coming back pretty quickly and the want or desire to do things that I haven't done for a long time during prep start coming back. Here's an example.

• 37:13Nick Bare?

  Earlier this week, a few days into taper, just my mental and physical energy started coming back. And I've had this list of things that I've wanted to get done these last couple of weeks and months I just haven't gotten to. Mainly because I was just pretty exhausted from life and work and prep. You know, prep just consumed a lot of my energy.

• 37:42Nick Bare?

  So earlier this week, I just started feeling all this energy come back again. And this can get out of control where you don't want to sit still and you keep just like running around, getting all these things done, but it happens. Earlier this week, I drained my cold plunge, I replaced the filter, I did some work on the sauna, I cleaned the sauna.

• 38:07Nick Bare?

  Just small stuff like that that I've been wanting to do for a long time now. And finally, having the physical and mental energy to just do it. I find myself uh searching for more around the house tasks or work to get done. That's one of the signs that, okay, central nervous system is repairing. I'm recovering, my energy is coming back. These are all great signs. It means that your body is getting primed to throw down come race day.

• 38:42Nick Bare?

  There are these things called taper tantrums. And I'm only recently familiar with these. Cause I started talking to someone who has also done a lot of races and preps and tapers. And I was sharing with them how I find that when I'm in the taper, I become more irritable.

• 39:05Nick Bare?

  Which initially I was kind of disappointed in myself because you would think that as your energy is coming back and you're feeling better, you'd be in a better mood. But I find that when I'm the taper, I'm actually in a worse mood. I become more moody and irritable. And I'm talking to someone about this and they go, oh, you mean the taper tantrum? So what's the taper tantrum? And they explained to me what the taper tantrum was. I did some research on it and it's a thing. So a lot of people talking about the taper tantrums. And apparently it is a real thing.

• 39:45Nick Bare?

  Uh, and there actually is some like real data in research behind it.

• 39:53Nick Bare?

  You're experiencing in a taper hormonal shifts. This reduced volume and intensity of training.

• 40:03Nick Bare?

  It lowers endorphins and stress hormones, which can make you feel off.

• 40:11Nick Bare?

  So when we're training a lot, and if you love training and you love performing and you're just working hard. When we're training, we're working out, there are these endorphins that are just flying off. These feel-good endorphins and hormonal responses. Dopamine is being released during training. You feel good. When you're not getting that regular pulse of dopamine and endorphin release that you're used to from all of this training, these hormonal shifts can actually make you feel off, moodier, more irritable.

• 40:51Nick Bare?

  It's a thing.

• 40:53Nick Bare?

  Uh, there is a psychological withdrawal. You built your identity and what you do around training so hard, so much that cutting that back feels almost unnatural. You might feel lazy and like you're losing your fitness. And then your body is recalibrating during this rest and recovery time. Your muscles are repairing, glycogen stores are refilling, and that can make you feel heavy or sluggish temporarily as the body is trying to recover and reach homeostasis and bring it back to a a well-rested and prime state. That recovery,

• 41:38Nick Bare?

  that requires work. Your body is working hard to recover. So you're going to or might feel sluggish, tired, fatigued. Like there were nights throughout this taper where I trained significantly less than I was used to. But it'd be after dinner and I was exhausted. Like wanting to fall asleep right there. And the reality is that my body was just working really hard to recover because I was finally allowing it to recover that it was telling me, hey, go to sleep. We, we need you to rest so that we can fix this body. So it's ready for race day. So listen to your body. Your body is recalibrating

• 42:21Nick Bare?

  to do what it's meant to do during the taper. It's a beautiful thing.

• 42:27Nick Bare?

  And as I was doing more research on this taper tantrum stuff, I actually took it to chat GPT. I was like, what is this taper tantrum stuff? And I forget exactly what question I prompted it with. And it spit out this like 10 day taper tantrum expectation report

• 42:53Nick Bare?

  that I read and I found so real that I'm just gonna share. This is from chat GPT. It's pretty wild. It's it's spot on, in my opinion. So days 10 to 8, this is assuming a 10 day taper. Days 10 to 8, the drop begins. So you start experiencing anxiety or guilt around doing less. You might have some restlessness and phantom soreness, pains or injuries start appearing. I mean, spot on. Day 7 to 6, this is what they are calling the energy shift.

• 43:37Nick Bare?

  You might start feeling flat or tired despite resting more.

• 43:43Nick Bare?

  You start overthinking small body sensations. And you start wondering if you're getting sick or losing sharpness. Day 7 to 6, like one week out, I thought I was getting sick. I was getting in my head. I started taking Zycam. Zycam is like this zinc medicine. You can take every two to three hours to fight the common cold. Especially because my daughter is in preschool for the first time this year. She's brought home so many sicknesses that our family's just been battling illness after illness after illness for like weeks now. My daughter brings it home, gets our one year old son sick.

• 44:25Nick Bare?

  And like me and my wife have constantly been like on and off sick for weeks now from what Charlie's be bringing home from from school, her first year in preschool.

• 44:37Nick Bare?

  Day five to four is considered the mental dip. Training load is minimal. Adrenaline has yet to kick in.

• 44:48Nick Bare?

  Your mental energy might be dipping before it actually rebounds. This is where you start experiencing mood swings and irritability and you start questioning your race readiness.

• 45:01Nick Bare?

  Day three to two, I'm in this right now, the bounce back. You're full, you're covered or close to it, energy levels start to surge and your body is primed for performance. I feel this right now. I feel full, you're covered. Today specifically, I feel my energy level is just surging. I'm starting to feel that that tends to up just like spring effect. I feel like a spring that is just getting compressed and compressed and compressed and I'm ready to just let it rip.

• 45:34Nick Bare?

  Day one, one day out, pre-race day, you're fully rested. Glycogen is loaded after your carbohydrate load and mentally you're keyed up. Your nerves start to peak and adrenaline is kicking in. You might have potential sleep disturbances because you're a bit nervous for the following day. And then rest day, or sorry, race day. Race day, you wake up feeling sharp, energized and light. This is the payoff for enduring the taper. You wake up, you feel sharp, energized and light. You've endured the taper, now you can throw down.

• 46:14Nick Bare?

  I thought that 10 day chat GPT breakdown was spot on. I can't take credit for it unfortunately. But from the the drop begins, the energy shift, the mental dip, the bounce back, pre-race day, race day. Spot on. I experienced all of those things uh so far up until this point in the taper. Now let's talk about carbohydrate loading. This is my favorite part of the taper.

• 46:43Nick Bare?

  You know, my diet has been, and I'm really proud to say this, um, but it's also not rare. You know, when I have to dial in my diet, which my diet is, is pretty dialed in year round, I would say, when I'm not in a prep, I have more flexibility. When I'm in a prep,

• 47:04Nick Bare?

  I'm very structured and very disciplined and very strict with my diet. I haven't had, you know, let's quote it, uh, a cheat meal, if you will, but I haven't had like an unhealthy meal.

• 47:23Nick Bare?

  I guess is the best way to put it. This entire prep.

• 47:27Nick Bare?

  Since early July,

• 47:30Nick Bare?

  I've been dialed with my nutrition, this entire prep, which actually isn't something harder for me to do. When I have to dial in my nutrition, uh, it's, it's pretty easy. And I don't, I don't get tempted by different foods. Now I am looking forward to post-prep, having less structure on my diet and being more flexible. Uh, but throughout the entire prep, I've been dialed and my carbohydrate load plan is just as dialed. It's not this free for all, go eat whatever you want. It is very intentional. It is structured. It is planned. Now, carbohydrate loading,

• 48:12Nick Bare?

  it maximizes muscle and liver glycogen stores. So our body will store carbohydrates in the muscles, primarily in the muscles and in the liver as glycogen. And these are stored carbohydrates that your body can tap into and break down and utilize during exercise, especially longer distance endurance events. The Ironman distance, like this is ideal. You want your, your muscle glycogen topped off and you're probably going to burn through all of it by the end of the race.

• 48:53Nick Bare?

  Now, the thing is that you've probably heard it before and maybe even when you were younger. I remember when I was younger playing sports, coaches would say the night before a game, have a big plate of pasta, you know, load up on pasta, load up on carbs. The night before is too late. You'll still have that circulating glucose and carbohydrate in the system that your body can utilize, but it's not stored as muscle glycogen. We can store more as muscle glycogen than is circulating for, for rapid readily use.

• 49:33Nick Bare?

  It takes at least 24 hours from the consumption of carbohydrates to digestion and then assimilation. Assimilation is the consumption, digestion, and then storage of carbohydrates in the muscle and in the liver as glycogen, the stored carbohydrate use. So we want to consume those carbohydrates we're going to use for a race, a competition event, at least 24 hours prior to. What I like to do is start my carbohydrate loading plan, uh, three to four days out. So in this, in this case, it is Thursday.

• 50:17Nick Bare?

  The race is Sunday. I'm going to load today, Thursday, and tomorrow, Friday. Saturday, I'll eat as normal, which is still going to be a lot of carbs, but not 800 grams of carbs. I like to keep Saturday, the day before, a little lighter to re-optimize digestion so that come race day, I'm just feeling good. And, and that's the way that I would approach it.

• 50:47Nick Bare?

  Three to four days out, start your carbohydrate loading plan. And then the day before the race, just eat as normal. You don't have to overdo it. This will ensure that you're topped off on muscle glycogen. You have stored carbohydrates that can be used for the race itself.

• 51:10Nick Bare?

  Now, I believe a lot of people don't consume nearly enough carbs during their carbohydrate loading plan and strategy. It is recommended to consume seven to 10 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight. Now, if you don't use kilograms, you use pounds, just take your weight in pounds, divide it by 2.2, and then multiply it by a number from seven to 10. And that's how you'll get how many grams of carbs you should consume each day of your carbohydrate loading strategy. So for me, as I mentioned, these next two days, 800 grams of carbs a day.

• 51:56Nick Bare?

  Saturday, I'll probably consume four to 450, maybe 500 grams of carbs, just depending on how I'm feeling. I can kind of look at myself and feel my body to know if I'm filled out and topped off on muscle glycogen.

• 52:16Nick Bare?

  Now, this is not just a free for all. Eat carbs, eat fat, eat protein, just get more calories. And this is not a calorie loading plan. This is a carbohydrate loading plan. So what I do is I pull up my fitness pal. I rarely track my food, but I build out my carbohydrate loading plan in my fitness pal so that I have a plan going into these days, knowing exactly what I'm going to eat to make sure I'm hitting the calories and the macronutrients that I want for each one of these days.

• 52:52Nick Bare?

  So carbohydrates are the priority. In this case for me, 800 grams of carbohydrates a day. I'm actually going to reduce protein by a little bit. I'm going to reduce fat and I'm going to reduce dietary fiber. So I'm going to reduce protein and I'm going to reduce dietary fat. Because what I really am trying to get to in this case is more carbs stored as glycogen. Still want some protein, still want some fats, but it's not the priority for the carbohydrate loading plan.

• 53:32Nick Bare?

  And I don't want calories to be in excess where I just feel disgusting come race day. So in order to keep calories a little bit lower with the increase in carbs, I'm going to pull protein back a little bit. I'm going to pull fats back. And I'm going to reduce dietary fiber intake. Because you want optimal digestion. I'm not going to eat any veggies from now until the race. I'm going to pull back any kind of carbohydrates or food that causes stomach discomfort. Just food sources that I know work really well for me. Digest very easy.

• 54:13Nick Bare?

  And I'm not going to have any sort of GI distress or discomfort. And I definitely don't want like 40, 50, 60 grams of fiber. Where I just feel full and bloated and gassy with the increased amount of carbohydrates. So stick to carbohydrate sources that digest easily. That you know work for you. And you want to test out your carbohydrate loading plan for your big workouts around a prep. So that come race day, you know exactly what you're going to do. And you've tested it, you've tried it, and you know it works. So I like to give a brief overview of what I'm consuming carbohydrate wise to get to 800 grams.

• 54:55Nick Bare?

  This morning I had Gobar, GUM Spore. I'm not going to include like the proteins and the fats that I've consumed, but just the carb sources. I had sourdough toast, I had blueberries, uh, which I'll keep the blueberry intake lower just because of fiber. Orange juice, lots of rice. I'll have four cups of rice today, white rice. Cream of rice, banana, lots of honey. Honey Nut Cheerios, more GUM Spore. It's actually really easy.

• 55:39Nick Bare?

  I don't say easy, but it's much simpler to get to 800 grams of carbs than you might think or imagine. It's not that challenging. I could easily eat 1,000 plus grams of carbs. I would just have to be intentional and structured appropriately and make sure those meals are spaced out without causing GI distress and really making sure that my muscle glycogen is fully topped off. Now something to keep in mind, uh, when it comes to glycogen, glycogen storage requires about three grams of water per gram of carbohydrate.

• 56:23Nick Bare?

  So when carbohydrates are stored in the muscle as glycogen, it's going to pull some water into the muscle as well, which is a good thing. But you can expect to gain some weight during the carbohydrate load. Don't be afraid of that. You want to be sitting a little bit heavier because it means that your body is storing the carbohydrates. Naturally with the water and the carbohydrates, the glycogen, you're going to sit a little heavier. I've helped many people with a carbohydrate load plan and by the second day of the carbohydrate load, they're texting me saying, "Hey man, I'm sitting heavier. I feel a little heavier. I don't think this is going to work. I'm scared."

• 57:08Nick Bare?

  I'm always like, hey, rest assured, trust the process. The day before the race, just eat as normal. Come race day, you're gonna feel great. And it happens every time. Second day of the carbohydrate load plan, they feel heavy, they're freaking out. The next day, which is the day prior to the race, they eat as normal. The morning of the race, they wake up feeling filled out and fast and light. And it does make a big difference in your performance. So if you taper well, you recover well, you carbohydrate load correctly, it can make a big difference come race day or competition day.

• 57:51Nick Bare?

  I love the structure of it. That's why I love a prep, I love a build, I love a race series, I love the taper, I love the carbohydrate load plan. I just really enjoy this structured aspect that leads to a specific type of performance. I love the taper because there's another layer of unique structure. I love the carbohydrate load plan because there's a unique structure and discipline and commitment and strategy to optimize performance. But you have to ask yourself the question, can you endure the taper?

• 58:34Nick Bare?

  You committed to the, the race, the competition. You've put in the work. Now allow that work to speak for itself. Allow your body to achieve full physical potential. Taper well. Taper well. So, that's the episode, all about the taper, the carb load plan. Hopefully this helps you guys out for your next race or competition. And I would encourage you, do more research, test things out on your own. Uh, test your carb load plan for your big workouts. And trust the process. So, that being said, we'll see you in the next episode.