You have done the hard part. Sixteen or more weeks of swimming, riding and running are in the bank, and your longest sessions are behind you. Now comes the part most athletes get wrong: the taper. Done well, the final two weeks before your Ironman 70.3 let your body absorb months of training and arrive at the start line fresher, faster and sharper than at any point in the season. Done badly, they leave you flat, anxious or exhausted before the cannon even fires.
This guide explains exactly what to do in the last 14 days before your half Ironman: how much to cut, what to keep, what to eat, and what to leave alone. It assumes you have followed a structured program like our 20-week 70.3 training plan or complete 70.3 training guide.
What a taper actually does
Training creates two things at once: fitness and fatigue. For most of the season fatigue hides fitness — your legs are heavy because you never fully recover between hard sessions. A taper reduces the training load enough for fatigue to fall away while fitness, which decays far more slowly, stays almost untouched. The result is a performance bump that sports scientists consistently measure at roughly 2–3% in well-designed tapers. Over a five-and-a-half-hour 70.3, that is in the range of 8–12 minutes — for free.
The key principle: reduce volume, keep intensity, keep frequency. Athletes who simply stop training lose sharpness and feel wooden on race day. Athletes who keep hammering long sessions arrive tired. The taper is neither rest nor training as usual — it is short, familiar work with real race-pace touches and a lot more recovery around it.
Week 2 before race day (days 14–8)
- Volume: cut total weekly hours by about 30–40% from your biggest recent week. If you peaked at 10 hours, this week is 6–7.
- Long ride: still happens, but roughly half your longest — around 2 to 2.5 hours, with 2 × 15 minutes at your target race effort.
- Long run: 60–75 minutes easy, with 3 × 5 minutes at goal half-marathon-off-the-bike effort.
- Swim: keep your normal frequency. Shorten the main sets, keep some speed — for example 8 × 50 at race pace with full recovery.
- Strength training: last real session happens early this week, then bodyweight and mobility only.
Race week (days 7–1)
Volume drops to about 40–50% of a normal training week, but you train almost every day. Short and frequent beats long and sparse — the goal is to stay loose, not to build anything.
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Monday | Swim 30 min easy, technique focus |
| Tuesday | Bike 45 min with 3 × 3 min at race effort |
| Wednesday | Run 30 min with 4 × 1 min at race pace; rest of day off feet |
| Thursday | Swim 20 min with a few race-pace 50s; travel / packet pickup |
| Friday | Rest or 20 min very easy spin; bike check-in |
| Saturday | 15 min swim at the venue if possible, 15 min spin, 10 min jog with 3 strides — all easy |
| Sunday | Race day |
Those short race-pace touches matter. They keep your neuromuscular system primed so race effort feels familiar, not shocking. Every one of them should end with you feeling like you could do far more.
The five most common taper mistakes
1. Testing your fitness
A hard brick or a time trial ten days out proves nothing and costs plenty. The hay is in the barn — nothing you do in the final two weeks can add fitness in time for the race, but it can absolutely subtract freshness.
2. Stopping completely
Total rest makes most endurance athletes feel worse: stale legs, poor sleep, race-week anxiety. Keep moving, just briefly.
3. Eating like you are still in peak training
Your energy burn drops with your volume. Keep portions slightly smaller than peak weeks until the final 48 hours, when carbohydrate intake deliberately rises — see our carb loading guide for the exact protocol.
4. Buying new gear
Nothing new on race day — and that rule starts two weeks out. No new shoes, saddle height changes, or experimental nutrition. Race exactly what you trained with.
5. Cramming workouts out of guilt
Feeling twitchy, irritable and convinced you are losing fitness is the normal psychological signature of a working taper. Trust the process. The restlessness is fatigue leaving, not fitness.
Sleep, weight and the taper blues
Prioritize sleep in week two, not just race week — the night two nights before the race matters more than the night before, when nerves often win anyway. Expect to gain 1–2 kg in race week: higher carbohydrate stores bind water (about 3 g of water per gram of glycogen). That weight is literally stored race fuel, not fat. Expect phantom niggles too; almost every athlete discovers mysterious aches during a taper, and almost all of them vanish at the start line.
The final 48 hours
- Shift carbohydrate intake to roughly 8–10 g per kg of body weight per day, favoring low-fiber sources.
- Stop eating big meals after lunch the day before; dinner should be familiar, early and moderate.
- Lay out and check everything with a checklist, then stop thinking about gear.
- Review your pacing plan — our long-course pacing guide covers power and heart-rate targets — and the 70.3 cutoff times if it is your first race.
- Get off your feet. Sightseeing the day before a 70.3 is a classic rookie tax.
Taper FAQ
How long should a 70.3 taper be?
Two weeks works for most age-group athletes. Very high-volume athletes sometimes stretch to three; athletes training under 7 hours a week often need only 10 days.
Should I do a brick workout during the taper?
One short one, 10–12 days out: about 45 minutes riding with race-effort surges and a 15-minute run off the bike. Nothing longer.
I got sick during my taper. Is my race ruined?
Usually not. A head cold in week two costs far less than athletes fear — fitness is already built. Rest fully, skip sessions without guilt, and reassess 48 hours out. Below-the-neck symptoms or fever are the only genuine race-day red flags.
Can I still hit my goal if my last long sessions went badly?
Yes. Single workouts, good or bad, predict very little. The aggregate of your last 12 weeks is what shows up on race day.
Ready to put the whole season together? Start with the free 20-week 70.3 plan, then come back to this guide two weeks out.
