.png)
The Endurance Athlete Journey
The Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast helps runners, triathletes, and endurance athletes train smarter, fuel better, and build long-term durability in sport.
Hosted by Coach Justin and sports dietitian Katie, the show explores the training, nutrition, recovery, and mindset challenges endurance athletes actually face—without the confusion and generic internet fitness advice that often leads to burnout, inconsistency, and frustration.
From first triathlons and swim anxiety to fueling mistakes, recovery, race-day expectations, and balancing training with real life, each episode combines practical coaching insight with evidence-based nutrition guidance and honest athlete conversations to help listeners better understand the “why” behind their training and fueling decisions.
Whether you’re preparing for your first race or trying to become a more complete endurance athlete, this podcast gives you clear, experience-driven guidance you can actually apply to your training, recovery, and performance.
The Endurance Athlete Journey
Episode 8: The Art of the Taper
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast we talk all about the art of the taper. We dive into what is the purpose of the taper and why it is important to taper before a big race. We also discuss how to approach the taper including some considerations when planning a taper. We talk about mistakes people make when tapering and how to avoid these mistake. We also dive deep into the mental and nutritional side of tapering.
Here is an outline of our discussion on the taper:
- Katie's current experience with tapering for her marathon
- Different aspects of the taper and how to plan a taper including how to manipulate volume, frequency, and intensity to plan your taper
- What to consider with training volume and intensity during the taper
- When to do a longer taper vs a shorter taper and how your consistency with training might determine how long you taper
- The mental side of the taper including positive visualization, keeping your mind from wandering and reducing anxiety, and avoiding social media as much as possible during the taper
- Why the week of the taper is not a good time to start new projects and get active in other ways
- Planning your final race day strategy including finalizing your pacing plan and fueling strategy
- Using this time to practice aspects of the race such as changing a tire on your bike or packing and planning for the race
- The nutritional considerations during the taper to avoid weight gain while also eating enough to repair your body for the race
There is a lot more to this episode so hopefully this information is helpful as you plan your taper strategy. Justin wrote a blog on this topic if you want to check that out: https://tabularasaracing.com/coachs-corner-library/f/the-art-of-the-taper
For coaching inquiries:
Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com
Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com
Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com
