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= Short Race Tapers =
For a short race (5K), a study <ref name="The effects of taper on performance in distance runners"/> showed that drastically reducing training volume, while keeping intensity high can produce great gains. A 7 day taper that reduces mileage by 85% and has a decreasing number of hard intervals (7 the first day, 6 the next, etc.) produces good results. However, this type of taper tends to cause muscle soreness, which makes it less than ideal for longer races.
= Fellrnr's Personal Ultra Tapering =
Like many ultrarunners, I do far more races in a year than typical marathon runners. This race load means that a longer taper is impractical. Therefore, for a short ultra (up to 50 miles), I take the day before the race off completely and convert that week's hill training to a flat run. For longer races, I'll reduce my Monday and Wednesday runs to one hour rather than three, avoid hills and take Friday off. (I normally only run Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.)
= References =
<references>
<ref name="Effects of Tapering on Performance: A Meta-Analysis">Effects of Tapering on Performance: A Meta-Analysis : Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise [http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2007&issue=08000&article=00019&type=abstract</ref http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2007&issue=08000&article=00019&type=abstract</ref]>
<ref name="The effects of taper on performance in distance runners">The effects of taper on performance in distance runners http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3379866 </ref>
</references>