Today officially starts my taper for the marathon. . . less than 2 weeks to go!
I am doing a two week taper for the Mayor’s Marthon. I know most plans have you taper for 3 weeks, but over my years of running competatively, I’ve found that I actually perform better with a shorter taper. To me, it feels like my body gets in too much of a relaxed mode otherwise before the big day. Plus, my body is used to doing quite a bit of running.
It worked last year, so I hope it works again this time!
I took it pretty easy on today’s run since I was still sore from my 22-miler on Saturday. My thutt (thigh + butt) muscles are especially sore!
Distance: 6 miles
Time: 54 minutes
As soon as I got back, I quickly made breakfast because I didn’t have anything to eat before heading out.
The last rhubarb muffin + Green Monster protein smoothie.
A recap on last week’s mileage:
Monday: 7 miles + 30 minutes of weight lifting
Tuesday: 10 miles with 7 miles at marathon pace
Wednesday: 10 miles + 30 minutes of weight lifting
Thursday: 6 miles + 60 minutes of yoga
Friday: 5 miles
Saturday: 22 miles
Sunday: off
Weekly total: 60 miles
This week I am planning on running about 35 miles.
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Question
How long do you taper for your races?
Good luck on your marathon! That’s exciting that it’s so close!!
We race much shorter distances, but we only taper aggressively two or three days before races. We do a slight taper for 1-2 weeks ahead of time (10-15% decrease in distance, shorter hard efforts and more steady state/easy efforts), and then 2-3 days beforehand, we taper really aggressively–50% reduction or more from our typical week, with very little speed.
I find that if you taper too soon, or too hard, your body treats it like a sigh of relief and you end up losing your edge and sometimes getting sick..
I hate tapering to be honest. I usually just lighten up my load of workouts two weeks before a race, but I honesty don’t taper that much as one should.
I slowly cut down my miles both swimming and running. I actually don’t taper too well but that is just me personally. I normally only do about half the amount of miles before the race. For instance I went from doing 60 to 30 before our big XC championships over the course of 3 weeks. It was perfect.
Good luck on your upcoming marathon!! Your miles are so impressive!
I loosely followed Hal Higdon’s plan, so I went with the traditional 3-week taper. It felt so long!