good morning everyone, I’ve been following Jack’s training for a few months and I’m really enjoying it. Now the races are starting and I saw that the week before the race Jack’s training sessions are only in z1 or zone 2 (taper) I was wondering Is this correct or am I doing something wrong in setting up the workouts?
This is a taper period before your race. Intensity this week will have no positive physical effect, but if you need to include small amounts of intensity for a positive mental benefit you can add your own, just be careful not to over do it. Keep higher intensity short, let your body recover and build from all your recent training. This is traditional fitness vs form. You want to increase your “form” which comes from a taper period. If this is not an A race and you don’t want to take the very small decrease from the small rest then you could switch it to a C race for example.
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PS: I am super happy you have enjoyed it and best of luck in your race. I hope you “kill it!” 
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I agree 100% with Alex, any intensity at this point will not result in increased physical adaptations for race day. Therefor if the race is a main race for you, don’t do much if any intensity.
The caveat is that you do want to keep your “engine” revving a bit to maintain the positive chemical changes in your body from training. For example, while your body is adjusted to hard training it releases more endorphins and it will actually help delay “muscle pain” and feelings of fatigue. Sometimes after a week off or “de-training” the body will physically recover but those chemicals will also return to normal levels, which is a bit suppressed. So then when you do come to race day you might feel a bit flat, due to your body coming down from that training high and it not handling the fatigue or pain the same. This is why “openers” or doing very short intensity sessions is quite popular.
The other problem with a taper is that it is incredibly individual. This is something no training plan can account for, and you must figure out for yourself over time. Some people don’t need any intensity and will remain sharp. Others might only need a couple days rather than a week. For me it is a balance of fully letting my body recover, but also mentally keeping my edge sharp. Which is stopping strength training 2 weeks prior. Then lowering volume the week prior but keeping 1 day about 4 days before the race to do some short high intensity intervals. The day before I will do a couple “openers”. Best of luck this race season!
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I agree 100% with all of this Nice response.
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thank you all for the replies, what do you recommend training for 4 days before the race? MTB GF
during the pre-race week
Tayno is describing positive chemical changes, as far as I know there is no documented studies verifying this but at the same time I think the basic idea of what he is saying should be true, I call this mental but as he points out it is more complex than just mental.
I recommend what Coach Jack gave you but you need to know yourself and if you need to add the minimal amount of intensity just to feel like you did something and reduced some pre-race performance anxiety then do it
If you just want to go do a nice 20 minute easy warmup followed by a short MTB ride with a bit of intensity 2 times this week should be fine, not the day before the race. Attempt to keep the total length closer to 1/2 your normal session and the intensity short. What you don’t want to do is create any pre-race fatigue.
Although unless you run the risk of not finishing the race (100km MTB…) then a small amount pre-race fatigue should not have a large negative affect but still not ideal for best performance. I would error on the side of less is more and even if you do just what coach jack suggests it’s fine you are there. You have prepared. You are ready now.
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thank you very much let’s say that I understand the concept you mean (unfortunately Google translator sometimes eats up some words 
) thanks again
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Use ChatGPT for complex translations. It’s much better.
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