Training Notes · Women & Ultras · Taper
How to Fuel Taper Properly.
A female athlete's framework for the final weeks.
enough, not less
Her Trails CoachingEvidence-informedWritten for women10 min read
Taper changes how your body feels. It also changes how you eat, and for many women, this is where things quietly start to drift.
01 · The drift
Where intake quietly slides.
Training volume drops. Appetite shifts. Routine softens. Without realising it, intake often drops too. Not dramatically, just enough to matter. This is one of the most common ways female athletes unintentionally undermine their taper.
Taper is not just about doing less. It is about allowing your body to complete the work it has already started. Reduce training but also reduce fuel, and you interrupt the very process taper is designed to support.
Common drift patterns
Skipped snacks
Mid-morning or mid-afternoon snacks disappear because hunger feels less urgent. The total day quietly shrinks by 300 to 500 calories.
Lighter meals
Salad instead of grain bowl. Soup instead of pasta. Choices that feel intuitive but strip carbohydrate when your body needs it most.
Cleaning up
An urge to eat “more healthily” before race day. Removing foods that have fuelled you all year is not a clean-up. It is a destabilisation.
Quiet fear
A wish to “not feel heavy” heading into the start line. Often disguised as discipline. Almost always counter-productive.
02 · The physiology
What taper is actually trying to do.
By the time you reach taper, most of your fitness is already built. The role of this phase is not to create new adaptation through stress. It is to allow recovery systems to fully express what training has built.
Glycogen stores fill. Muscle damage repairs. Connective tissue reinforces. Hormonal rhythm steadies. Immune function rebuilds. None of these processes are passive. None of them happen without adequate intake.
What your body is doing in taper
Glycogen
Muscle and liver glycogen finally rebuild beyond training-week levels. Requires carbohydrate availability across the day, not just one big meal.
Muscle repair
Microdamage from peak weeks resolves. Driven by adequate protein at each eating occasion, not protein-loading one meal.
Hormones
Thyroid output, sex hormones and cortisol all rely on sufficient energy availability. Fats support this directly.
Immune
Post-training immune dip resolves. Under-fuelling here is one of the most common reasons women catch a virus 7 to 10 days out.
Nervous system
Parasympathetic drive returns. Sleep deepens. HRV climbs. All of which require stable blood glucose, meaning carbohydrate, regularly.
03 · Energy availability
The number that matters more than calories.
Energy availability (EA) is the energy left for basic physiological function after exercise is accounted for. It is calculated per kilogram of fat-free mass. When EA drops too low, even slightly, the body begins to prioritise survival over optimisation.
Recovery slows. Hormonal balance shifts. Sleep can be disrupted. Performance capacity falls. In taper, low EA quietly blunts the very gains you are trying to realise.
Energy availability zones
Optimal
~45 kcal per kg fat-free mass per day. Recovery, hormones and performance all supported. This is where taper should sit.
Sub-optimal
30 to 45 kcal per kg FFM per day. Function continues but recovery quietly compromises. Hormonal markers begin to shift in women within 5 days.
Low EA
Below 30 kcal per kg FFM per day. The threshold associated with REDs: bone health, menstrual function, immune and mood impacts.
Worked example · 60 kg athlete, 47 kg FFM
Optimal EA
~2,115 kcal available after exercise. If today's session burns 500 kcal, total intake target is ~2,615 kcal.
Easy taper day
30-minute jog burns ~250 kcal. Total intake target stays ~2,365 kcal, not much lower than training weeks.
The drift trap
Skipping a 400 kcal snack on an easy day drops EA into sub-optimal range within a week.
04 · Female-specific layers
What women need to factor in.
Female physiology responds to low energy availability earlier and at smaller deficits than male physiology. The mechanisms below shape how you should think about taper fuelling specifically.
Female considerations
Cycle phase
Late luteal can lift carbohydrate needs by ~5 to 10%. If race week falls here, lean in. Do not interpret PMS appetite as a discipline test.
Iron status
Female endurance athletes carry a higher risk of low ferritin. Taper is too late to fix it, but it is exactly the time to check meals are iron-supportive.
Protein timing
Women benefit from spreading 20 to 30 g protein across each meal and snack, including breakfast and pre-bed. Single-meal loading is less effective.
Carb sensitivity
Cutting carbs is felt faster in women than men. Sleep, mood and thyroid markers shift quickly. Hold them steady all the way to start line.
Body composition
Taper week is not a body composition phase. It is a glycogen and recovery phase. Treat the scale as noise, not signal.
05 · The principles
What fuelling taper properly looks like.
Fuelling taper is not about eating dramatically more. It is about maintaining enough. Five principles to hold across the whole phase.
Five taper principles
01 · Structure
Keep regular meal and snack times even when hunger softens. Routine carries fuelling when appetite cues do not.
02 · Carbs steady
Maintain training-block carbohydrate intake. The case for cutting them never appears in the evidence and never appears on race day.
03 · Protein spread
20 to 30 g at each eating occasion. Eggs, yoghurt, fish, tofu, legumes, lean meat. Spread, not stacked.
04 · Fats in
Olive oil, avocado, nuts, oily fish, full-fat dairy as preferred. Hormonal support and satiety in one move.
05 · No long gaps
No more than ~4 hours between eating occasions in waking hours. Closes the door on the cortisol-and-cravings cycle.
This is not the time to clean up your diet. Feeling light on race day comes from being well-fuelled, not under-fuelled.
06 · The final days
Race week, simplified.
Carbohydrate availability lifts in the final 24 to 48 hours, but the shift is consistent, not aggressive. Keep food familiar. Keep portions known. Let the body do what it has been training to do.
Race-week timeline
5 to 7 days out
Hold training-week structure. 5 to 7 g carbohydrate per kg body weight per day. Continue normal fibre intake.
3 to 4 days out
Lift to 6 to 8 g per kg per day. Begin reducing very high-fibre items. No new foods, no new supplements.
24 to 48 h out
8 to 10 g per kg per day. Low residue, low fibre, familiar carbs. Hydrate steadily. Add salt to meals.
Night before
A familiar, carb-led dinner you have eaten before long runs. Plus a small carb snack before bed.
Race morning
1 to 4 g per kg, 2 to 4 hours pre-start. Practised foods only. Nothing introduced for the first time in the dark.
07 · When taper feels off
Look at fuel first.
If energy is low, mood is flat, or HRV is trending down, fuelling is one of the first places to look. Not as a quick fix, but as a foundational support. Instead of “should I eat less because I am training less”, ask:
“Am I giving my body enough to recover from everything I have already done?”
08 · The frame, again
What matters most now.
Taper is not about restriction. It is about readiness. It is where your body completes the work you have been building toward, and that process requires support, not subtraction.
You are not trying to become smaller in taper. You are trying to become ready. Fuel is not separate from performance. In taper, it is one of the main ways you allow it to emerge.
fuel her to the start line.
Want a personal plan?
Tamara Madden
Specialist in fuelling for endurance sport.
For individualised taper and race nutrition built around your physiology, cycle and event, we recommend working with Tamara at Madon Nutrition.
Visit Madon Nutrition →
Written by
Her Trails Coaching
Evidence-informed coaching for women training across the seasons of their lives.
