Tapering for your marathon should not be taken lightly and not under estimated. There’s plenty of good things that can come from a well planned taper phase likewise it can all go wrong as well.
WHAT IS A MARATHON TAPER?
The marathon taper is the final weeks before race day. During these weeks you need to dial down your mileage and let your body rest. Tapering before a marathon is really important. 26.2 miles is a serious distance, and the training to get there is hard work.
The purpose of the taper period is to let your body rest but to not lose any of the fitness you’ve gained during training. That means you have to plan carefully to strike the right balance. Your workouts will subsequently get shorter and easier, but not too short or too easy.
HOW LONG YOUR MARATHON TAPER SHOULD BE?
Tapering is going to be different for a lot of different runners. For the marathon it’s generally within the weeks leading up to race day. Tapering with start once you've completed your last long run, that run can be somewhere from 18-22 miles. It will vary on the individual runner and how well other aspects of their training has gone.
Don’t do any strength training and carry on eating as you were in full training. This will allow your body to rest, recovery and top up its glycogen levels.
When a taper starts, your body is somewhat depleted. You would have put in a lot of work as you approach this stage. Remember: the taper is meant to re-energise you.
HOW TO PLAN YOUR MARATHON TAPER?
For the week of your marathon, you will be cutting back your mileage quite a bit. Typically, one short speed workout four days out followed by a tempo run of short time and distance. A good example of marathon race week might look like this:
28-21 days from your race - 20-14 days from your race-
- run your longest run - decrease mileage by 20%
- run your highest mileage week - continue with quality sessions
- plan to cut miles 20% the following week - add in some marathon specific work
- Keep up with quality session
13-6 days out from the race - 5-1 days out -
- decrease mileage by another 20% - weekly mileage dropped by 50%
- decrease long run by 40% less than peak week - long run is now the race
- continue with quality sessions - main goal is not to do any harm
- add in some marathon specific work - keep easy, easy!
-start increasing your carbs - continue carbin' up
- extra rest days
WHAT TO EXPECT DURING TAPERING FOR YOUR MARATHON.
This phase can be more mentally challenging than anything else. You may start to feel a little anxiety as you’ve spent the last couple of months working hard. You’ve laced up turned up at least 3 times a week. You’ve kept up with cross training and strength workouts diligently.
Now that race day is right around the corner, pre-race jitters will start to take over.
"Am I doing enough to make the most out of this race"?
"What if I lose the stamina I’ve worked so hard to build"?
Having to take it easy for a couple weeks will feel strange, but in the end the taper will make you stronger and even more ready for race day.
You will have more free time on your hands, try some other foam of low impact exercise, swimming, walk or cycling are normally a good switch. Try nailing down your nutrition and work on some race day prep.
