here is some info on Tapering from Ken Mierke and Joe Friel

You have trained long and hard and the big race is approaching. It is time to rest. Most athletes and coaches understand the need for a taper, but few grasp the nuances of planning a taper appropriately. Getting the taper just right enables performing to your potential race day.
The purpose of the taper is to get fully rested, but athletes rarely perform at their best immediately after rest. The taper is a two-part process beginning with rest and then including enough quality work to sharpen your skills and fine tune fitness.

Rest diminishes fatigue, but also diminishes factors critical to performance. Blood volume and movement economy may be dramatically reduced with a few days of reduced training.
The key is providing enough rest to remove residual fatigue while inserting enough intensity to maintain fitness and efficient neuromuscular interactions. Timing is critical.

Duration of Taper
A number of factors affect taper duration. Higher level athletes need longer tapers. Though they do recover more quickly from hard training, they also are able to use greater resources in training and “dig a deeper hole�. High-level amateurs and professionals train with greater volume and intensity and need more time to rest.
The better condition you are in, the longer the taper should be. If you have struggled in training and have not come into form, you may do better to spend an extra week catching up and use a shorter taper. The athlete who has trained effectively benefits less from the extra week of training and needs more rest.
Longer races require longer tapers. High volume-low intensity training requires more time to fully recover from than high intensity-low volume training. Many aspects of speed detrain faster than endurance. Endurance will stay with you through a long period of reduced training. Speed won’t.

We generally recommend the following lengths for tapers:
• Three to four week taper
o Ironman distance triathlon
• Two to three week taper
o Half-ironman triathlon
o International distance triathlon
• Ten day to two week taper
o Sprint distance triathlon
• Three to seven-day taper
o B priority race

Decreasing volume is the most critical factor in a taper. For a four-week taper, volume will be approximately 80%, 70%, 60%, 40% of normal weekly volume. For a two week taper it might be 75%, 50%.
Maintain workout frequency. This is critical for maintaining economy and for psychological reasons. Use short, easy workouts, not rest days.
Perform a set at race intensity, but nowhere near race duration, every 72 to 96 hours during the taper. These workouts improve race-pace economy, but still allow full recovery between workouts. These workouts are reduced in volume as the race approaches.
Athletes tend to be sluggish for their first two workouts after a block of rest. Make sure race day isn’t one of those. Place a complete rest day earlier in race week, at least two days out. Don’t take the last day before the race off.

Some light quality training in the several days before the event will increase blood volume, sharpen your movements, and develop confidence. This should NOT be a heavy workout, but should be just challenging enough to “wake up� the muscles. These workouts bolster confidence.
Any athlete can benefit from some very light economy work in the days leading up to an A race. Keep these reps shorter than normal, about 20 seconds, and emphasize full recovery between reps. Try 20- to 90-second repeats at goal race pace up to 95% effort – not a full sprint, but at a pace that you couldn’t ride or run for more than a couple of minutes. Keep cadence and turnover very high for these and allow three to five minutes of very easy recovery.

Don’t experiment with diet. You may need to reduce the volume of food eaten, but eat the foods that comprise your normal diet.
The taper enables busy athletes to get extra sleep and this is an important factor during the taper. If you nap regularly continue it, but do not add naps if they are not already routine. They may interfere with sleeping at night. Shorter workouts give you a few minutes per day. Use it to sleep and you will race faster.

Remember that rest is more than just not working out. Eddie Borysewicz, a famous cycling coach, used to say “Never stand when you can sit; never sit when you can lie down.� Stay off your feet as much as possible. Little things matter.

How hard training should be the day before the A race may be a very individual thing. We coach one road cyclist who thrives on really hard workouts the day before races. We rest him heavily early in the week and hammer him Friday or Saturday. He has won races the day after eight reps of a three-minute hill repeat all out, with the last minute out of the saddle. This is quite unusual, but it works for this rider.

• Here are some general guidelines by sport to follow in your peak period:Keep swimming. Swim economy is lost quickest with time off and the swimming muscles are less likely to need heavy rest.
• Perform high cadence work on the bike and keep the frequency up.
• Include just a little high force work if there will be climbing. (3-5 repetitions of 20 and 30 seconds with full (2+ minutes) recovery between reps).
• Rest running muscles early in the week and include frequent, light runs toward the end of the week.
• Emphasize long, slow strokes with swimming and light movements and high cadence with both cycling and running.

Visualization
You will have more time available during the taper, so you can spend a few extra minutes a day training your mind. This is the perfect time to add visualization.
Follow these instructions and you give yourself the best chance of performing to your potential on race day.

Sidebar: Sample Taper

Monday: Rest & Recover
Tuesday: Ride 1 hour Zone 1
Wednesday: Swim 1 hour Very Easy
Thursday: Ride 45 minutes Zone 2 ? Run 10 minutes Zone 2
Keep bike cadence and run turnover high.
Friday: Swim 30 minutes easy
Run 30 minutes with 5 minutes at race pace
+ 3 x 20 seconds at mile pace with full recovery
Saturday: Swim 20 minutes with 3 x 100 at race pace
Ride 30 minutes with 5 minutes at race pace
Be careful not to go faster than race pace.
Sunday: RACE DAY!!!
Sidebar: Summary
• When in doubt, rest more!
• Reduce workout volume not intensity and frequency.
• Include enough fast training to keep movements efficient while rehearsing race pace by including small amounts of race pace work and by including short, fast economy reps
• Remember that rest is more than not working out.

Ken Mierke is Director of Training for Ultrafit and author of The Triathlete’s Guide to Run Training, which is due out in February 2005 ([url]www.Fitness-Concepts.com)[/url].
Joe Friel is author of The Triathlete’s Training Bible and co-author of Going Long ([url]www.Ultrafit.com)[/url].

We've been through this so many times. Just have to search. There is lots out there. :D

Nice post BBB I enjoyed it.

that's why I posted it! Heck, I read it again.