Training Notes · Women & Ultras · Taper

How to Fuel Taper Without Undermining Your Race

A female-specific approach to fuelling, energy availability, and the final weeks before an ultramarathon

Taper changes how your body feels. But it also changes how you eat.

For many women, this is where things quietly start to drift.

Training volume drops. Appetite shifts. Routine softens. And 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.

Because taper is not just about doing less. It is about allowing your body to complete the work it has already started.

What taper is 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 catch up.

That includes muscle repair, nervous system recalibration, and importantly, the restoration of glycogen stores.

All of these processes require energy.

Not just reduced expenditure, but adequate intake.

Why women often underfuel taper

Under-fuelling during taper is rarely intentional. It is usually the result of subtle shifts.

Appetite cues change as training load drops. Hunger feels less urgent. Meals become less structured.

For some, there is also a quiet fear of “feeling heavy” heading into race day.

For others, life simply gets busy, and fuelling becomes less of a priority as training demands ease.

But physiologically, your body is still working.

In many ways, it is working harder behind the scenes than it has been during peak training.

Energy availability matters more than you think

Energy availability refers to how much energy is left for basic physiological function after exercise is accounted for.

When intake drops too low, even slightly, the body begins to prioritise survival over optimisation.

Recovery slows. Hormonal balance shifts. Sleep can be disrupted. Mood can flatten. HRV may drop.

For female athletes, this matters even more.

Low energy availability is linked to disrupted menstrual function, reduced bone health, impaired immune response, and decreased performance capacity.

In taper, it can quietly blunt the very gains you are trying to realise.

What fuelling well in taper actually looks like

Fuelling taper is not about eating dramatically more. It is about maintaining enough.

This is not the time to “clean up” your diet or reduce intake in an attempt to feel lighter.

Feeling light on race day comes from being well-fuelled, not under-fuelled.

The final days before race day

As race day approaches, carbohydrate availability becomes more important.

This does not need to be extreme. It needs to be consistent.

Gradually increasing carbohydrate intake while maintaining overall balance is far more effective than a sudden, aggressive shift.

Keep foods familiar. Keep digestion predictable.

This is about stability, not experimentation.

If you’re not feeling great in taper

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 asking whether you should eat less because you are training less, the better question is:

“Am I giving my body enough to recover from everything I have already done?”

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.