HOW TO RUN A FASTER 5K - TAPER TIPS TO BE AT YOUR BEST - Ben Is Running

Aug 13, 2025

This is a quick summary of HOW TO RUN A FASTER 5K - TAPER TIPS TO BE AT YOUR BEST from Ben Is Running. It’s a great watch — we’re breaking down the key takeaways so you can feel your best on race day. Be sure to check out the full video for all the details.

Key Points

Taper Strategy: The core idea is to cut your weekly mileage by 50-60% in the 10 days leading up to the race. For example, if you’re running 120 km per week, you’ll drop down to 60-70 km. This reduction allows your body to recover and absorb your training load, ensuring you’re rested but sharp. These principles can also be adapted for longer races, and you can find more on that in our guide to Mastering the 10K: Proven Training Plans, Pace Strategies, and How a Smart App Can Elevate Your Performance.
Week-long Structure:
- 5 days out: Perform a short, fast tune-up workout (see the example below). This tune-up is a classic example of a race-specific interval session. To dive deeper into the benefits of these workouts, check out our guide on Mastering Interval Training: Science-Backed Workouts and How a Smart App Can Personalize Them.
- 4-3 days out: Easy runs of 45-60 min (≈10-12 km) at an easy pace (e.g., 4:30-5:00 min/km).
- 2 days out: Take a full rest day. No running. Let your legs fully recover.
- 1 day out: A very easy 30-minute run with 3-4 strides (15-second pickups at race pace with 30-second recovery) to keep the legs feeling fresh.
Recovery Tools: Ben emphasizes using hot baths with Epsom salts, regular use of a massage gun (on setting 3), and trying different massage-gun heads for specific areas like quads and knees.
Performance Tips: Prioritize getting 8 hours of sleep for at least two nights before the race, lay out your race kit the night before, set realistic A- and B-goals, and avoid taking a complete rest day right before the race.

Workout Example (5 Days Before Race)

Warm-up: 1 km easy + light strides.
Main set: 6 × 1 km at your target 5K race pace (e.g., 4:00-4:15 / km) with approximately 90 seconds of jogging recovery. This session is designed to sharpen your legs and lock in your race pace without adding fatigue. For more workouts like this, explore our complete guide on Mastering 5K Speed: Proven Interval Strategies to Cut Minutes off Your Time.
Finish: 4 × 400 m at race pace, with a full recovery between each rep.
Cool-down: 1 km easy.

Total volume is around 7.6 km, focusing on race-pace quality while keeping the overall load low.

Closing Note

Give these taper tips a try for your next race. You can tweak the paces to match your own training in the Pacing app and arrive on the start line feeling fresh, fast, and ready to crush your 5K goals! 🚀