Remember
my recent post on a study that found
well-trained athletes had lower max heart rates than sedentary people? Well,
here’s another related one. Researchers at the University of British Columbia
in Vancouver found that max heart rate decreases 3-7% as aerobic fitness
improves. And to further challenge our thinking, the study showed that when
tapering for a race max heart rate increases.
That implies a loss of fitness when tapering. This goes hand-in-hand with the seemingly
counterintuitive concept I’ve often proposed here and in my tweets that
tapering results in a reduction in fitness.
You
can’t cut back on training without losing fitness. If this wasn’t the case then
the way you would improve fitness is by just sitting in front of the TV every
day for several weeks. You have to train hard to make fitness improvements – not slack off. Of
course, what you gain when tapering during a peak period is a reduction in
fatigue that makes you feel more fit.
Coaches often call this “form.” When “on form” you’re rested, fresh, race
ready, and
very little fitness has been lost. The challenge when
tapering is to lose a lot of fatigue while only giving up a small amount of
fitness. That’s what makes peaking for a race so tricky.
Reference
Zavorsky
GS. 2000. Evidence and possible mechanisms of altered maximum heart rate with
endurance training and tapering. Sports
Med 29(1):13-26.
