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Marathon Taper
- The Complete Taper Guide including the 10 Don'ts of Marathon Tapering
When training for a marathon, you have, no doubt, read and heard about
the marathon taper.
Now, what is a marathon taper and why should you do marathon tapering?
Is there a right and a wrong way to tapering?
Lots of questions.
A good taper will set you up for marathon success, a bad one can ruin
your race.
So, time for a discussion on the do’s and don’ts of marathon
tapering.
In this article I’ll cover off on:
What is a
Marathon Taper?
Why Should I do a Marathon Taper?
How Long Should I Taper?
How Should I Decrease My Mileage During the Marathon Taper?
Decrease mileage, not intensity
What Should I Eat During a Marathon Taper?
The 10 Don'ts of Marathon Tapering
What is a Marathon Taper?
The marathon taper is the period
just before your race. It can be two
or three weeks in length (more on that below). The purpose of marathon
tapering is that you get much-needed rest after months of training.
Why Should I Do a Marathon Taper?
Those months of training will have had their toll on you. You would
have slowly gotten more and more tired. Only rest can fix that problem!
But, you
might say, won’t I loose my fitness? I have worked so hard all
this time and now you want me to rest up for two or three weeks? What’s
up with that? Have you lost your mind?
Or something slightly less aggressive… :)
Well, like I said before, marathon training has its toll on you. It
gets you more and more tired as the weeks progress. Simply continuing
to train hard becomes counterproductive at some point. All
it does is
get you more tired and it doesn’t help you get faster anymore.
Use
the marathon taper to catch up on your sleep!
Compare this when you are studying hard for an exam for several weeks
on end. You are cramming and cramming, studying every minute of the
day.
They are long days and you study till deep into the night. It gets
you exhausted and you’ll get to a point where your mind just won’t
absorb any information anymore.
It’s at that point that it would be best if you had a really good
night’s sleep and then continue the studying again the next day. And
you’ll find after the good night’s sleep that everything is suddenly a
lot easier. The two pages that took you 45 minutes yesterday, now only
take 10 minutes.
That’s sort of what a marathon taper accomplishes for your body. It
gives you rest, your legs and mind become fresh and you’ll be ready to
roar on race day, rather than fatigued.
How Long Should I Taper?
So how long should the marathon taper be? Well, opinions vary. In
reality it depends on the marathon training schedule you have used and
yourself. If the schedule is a more traditional high mileage schedule,
then a taper of three
weeks is advisable.
If the schedule is a little less focused on high mileage and more on
quality workouts, then two
weeks can be sufficient.
You’ll always see marathon training schedules either using two or three
weeks.
Anything shorter than that will not give you sufficient time to
rest up and anything longer than that is unnecessarily long and can
compromise your fitness.
Making up
your own schedule and not sure what to do? Then go for three
weeks of taper.
How Should I Decrease My Mileage
During the Marathon Taper?
So, how should you decrease your
mileage during the taper? General
guidelines are as follows:
Week 1:
Reduce your mileage to about 70-80% of highest weekly mileage
Week 2: Reduce your mileage to about 50% of highest weekly mileage
Week 3: Reduce your mileage to about 25-35% of highest weekly mileage
Again, this depends on the schedule you have been using and yourself.
Factors like
how old you are and how quickly you generally recover are
important.
Eat
healthy and nourish your body during the taper
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However, the above guidelines
make sense for most of us.
As we get older and recovery is tougher we probably have
somewhat lower peak mileage as well.
So, you’ll find that the above
rules make sense for most of us!
"I Love This Marathon Guide. It's Really Good. I Don't Get It. You Are Giving This Away for Free??? I Should Have Had This Years Ago. It's Never Been So Easy!"
Grab "Marathon Training Secrets" NOW. Run Your Marathon With Confidence. |
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Reduce Mileage, Not Intensity
Probably the biggest mistake I see runners around me make is that they
see the marathon taper as a period of only easy running.
They
mistakenly think that they not only have to reduce mileage, but that
they also have to reduce speed.
This can kill
many marathon dreams!
It will leave you with "stale
legs", i.e. you’ll have the feeling that you will have lost all ability
to run fast at the end of the three weeks.
So, you can still do intervals, you can still do your tempo runs.
However, they should be shorter, in line with the guidelines provided
before.
E.g.if a normal interval session is something like 12 x 400m, then in
week 3 make it a 4 x 400m session. That’s actually a pretty good
session to fire up the legs one more time before your marathon, without
overexerting yourself. Just make sure you do that last session at least
four
days out from your marathon.
What Should I Eat During a Marathon
Taper?
Life
is slower when you taper
During the taper, as during your whole marathon training period, stay
focused on eating healthy foods. Make sure you don’t
overeat or
undereat. You might find that you need to eat a little less during the
marathon taper period as you are reducing your mileage.
However, it is not bad to gain 2-4 pounds (1-2 kilos) during this
period. During the final week you need to carbo-load. This means eating
extra carbohydrates to ensure your glycogen levels get topped up. You
do this during the last 3- 5 days before your marathon.
You also need to make sure you stay hydrated. Drink some extra water in
the lead-up to your marathon.
Of course, drinking alcohol is not advisable. We are all human though,
we are not machines, so just having a glass of wine at night with
dinner a couple of nights per week is fine.
I explain more about marathon diet on the marathon
training nutrition page.
The 10 Don'ts of Marathon Tapering
Now, over to the 10 don'ts of marathon tapering. Well, there are a few
things you shouldn’t do, some of them highlighted
before. I’ll list them here with some short explanations:
1. Don’t Reduce the Intensity of Your Runs
Keep on doing intervals and tempo runs, just reduce the length of your
runs.
2. Don’t Cram in a Last Long Run
If you have missed out on some training for some reason, it will be
tempting to cut your marathon taper short and add in a final long run
or another high-mileage week.
Don’t do it.
I hope I have made clear
that the marathon taper is an absolutely essential ingredient to
marathon success. You do need that rest. Even if your training hasn’t
been great, taking the rest is almost always going to be better than
not.
3. Don’t Make
Up for Your PERCEIVED Loss
of Fitness in Another Way
Don’t decide that because you are not running as much, you can instead
go for a long bike ride. Or do some extra weight lifting. The purpose
of marathon tapering is to give your body a rest. Replacing the running
effort by another sport is not going to give you a rest. Simple as that.
4. Don’t
Second Guess the Taper
You will get that feeling. "Ah, you know what. I actually feel great. I
am not tired at all anymore. I reckon I am one of those people that
recovers exceptionally well. I can do with a little more of extra
training."
Well, ,guess
what, chances are you are not superhuman.
Don’t give in to
feelings of nervousness or feelings that you have got this all under
control. Just take the time to rest up, give your body a break. The big
race is waiting in less than three weeks, save your energy for that
one, not for crazy last-minute training!
For
some of us, the taper period is SOOOO frustrating!
5. Don’t Get a
Massage in the Last Week
A professional sports massage can be great. It helps loosen up the
muscles, it can help prevent injuries etc. However, did you know that
deep-tissue massage like this actually counts as a hard training day?
Yes, it does.
So my advice is always to don’t do a massage in the last week before
the marathon. It will do more harm than good. More than one week out?
No problem, but don’t do it the last week before the marathon.
6. Don’t Do
Quality Runs in the Last Three Days Before Your Marathon
With quality runs I am referring to intervals, tempo runs and long
runs. There is no place for them in the last three days before your
marathon. Just stick to easy 20 or 30 minute efforts. Enough to get the
legs warm, keep up lactic acid removal etc.
7. Don’t
Go to the Expo or the Pasta Party
Oops, hope no race organisers are reading this… :)
I would highly recommend being cautious with going to the marathon expo
or the pasta party. When it is busy, you will spend a lot of time on
your feet within 24 hours of race day.
Some of us consider it part of the experience. Something we need to be
part of. Yes, maybe, but just keep in mind that the next day you will
be running three, four, five hours or more, depending on your ability.
So, make sure you don’t spend too long there and don’t spend too much
time on your feet.
Avoid
the pasta party, don't avoid the pasta!
8.
Don’t Go Crazy with Sightseeing
Ever spent a (long) weekend exploring a city? It does get you tired,
doesn’t it? When you are doing your marathon in a big city you haven’t
been before, it’s awfully tempting to go for an explore.
It is easy to not be disciplined when there is so much to see and do in
a new exciting city.
Again, time on your feet is crucial here. You don’t want to spend a
whole day running around from one place to the other just before your
marathon. Want to do some sightseeing anyway? Then see if
you can book
a bus tour or do something else that is mostly NOT on your feet.
You can also reserve some time after the marathon is over. However,
many of us can barely walk the day(s) after a marathon, so you might
find your sightseeing plans derailed!
When you want
to do some sightseeing do it early in the week preceding
your marathon. The last two, three days should really be
focused on
that marathon.
Now, you don’t have to live like a total recluse those
last few days, but just
be sensible. Really want to visit a museum and
this is your chance to do it? Sure, go ahead, spend a few hours there.
Just force yourself to take breaks in between. Make a point of sitting
down whenever possible. And
don’t spend all day on your feet.
9. Don’t
Let it All Be. Control Everything You Can Control
I once listened to a talkback radio session in which they had some
elite athletes on the line talking about preparing for big events.
Their motto was: "Control
everything you can control."
Simple things, like knowing where bag drop-off is, when you need to be
there, how to get there etc all makes a major difference to your nerves
on race day.
Visualizing
the course map and knowing where the hills are will help
tremendously as well. I have done races and talked to
fellow-competitors who have admitted things as being totally surprised
by a steep hill towards the end.
When you know
it is there, you can
prepare for it!
Controlling everything you can control means you know all those things
and have less to worry about on race day.
But you can interpret it more widely, i.e. you can plan your days ahead
of your marathon in more detail. Know when you’ll eat. Know what you’ll
be having. Know when you go to bed.
This might sound so simple, but if you are travelling to a different
city for your marathon and aren’t in your home, then you can’t rely on
your normal routine. After all, often when we go on city trips we live
a bit unhealthier than usual.
10.
Don’t Get Unrealistic Goals in Your Head
When you get to the starting line you need to have a reasonable idea of
the time you’ll run. This
should be based on recent races and your
recent training.
Check out the marathon pace page
of this website to work out what a reasonable time would be for your marathon.
And then check the marathon
pacing strategy page to work out how to achieve
your marathon goal (click pics below to get access to these very useful pages).
When you have completed your marathon taper successfully, you will feel
great on race day.
Great
marathon tapering can be the reason
you run your personal best on race day or not.
So, focus on it and
enjoy the reduced training load after months of very hard training.
Enjoy These Pages As Well
"I Love This Marathon Guide. It's Really Good. I Don't Get It. You Are Giving This Away for Free??? I Should Have Had This Years Ago. It's Never Been So Easy!"
Grab "Marathon Training Secrets" NOW. Run Your Marathon With Confidence. |
|
|
"Thank you for these emails! As a beginner runner I am really getting a lot of valuable help from your knowledge!"
Joe
"Loving the tips! Loving them all. Keep it up …"
Kursti
|
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