marathon in 8 weeks, taper advice

1 watcher

Jenni Apr 2017 3:36pm, 2 Apr 2017 First-time poster!!	0 Jenni Hi, I was wandering if anyone had advice to offer on tapering for a marathon. I'm aiming to do the Breckland marathon on the 23rd April, it will be the first marathon I've ever run. I only found out about the marathon on the 28th February so I haven't had long to train (but before this I usually ran 6 days a week with a total weekly milage of about 25 miles). For training I've been running 5 days a week with one day rest, one day of strength training (pilates), 2 tempo runs, 1 long run and the 2 steady runs. Now it's getting closer to the date I'm thinking I should taper a bit but as I've only been training for a short time I'm not too sure on how long to taper for. I also accidentally ran 26 miles in my long run yesterday by getting my route wrong (I have intended to run 22). I've read lots of things saying you shouldn't do this. Should I take this week particularly easy to make up for it? I'm feeling relatively ok today despite the distance yesterday, only mild muscle soreness but I haven't been running again yet. I finished the 26 miles in 4.5 hours so not particularly fast but roughly the time I'd expect to finish a marathon in. Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks, Jenni ps: my training weekly milage and long runs below for info: week 1 total miles: 29.4, long run: 12.4 miles week 2 total miles 29.9, long run: 15.8 miles week 3 total miles 37.9, long run: 19.8 miles week 4 total miles 37, long run 16.2 miles week 5 total miles 41, long run 26 miles
jdarun Apr 2017 3:49pm, 2 Apr 2017 1,388 posts	0 jdarun Hi jenni, you're doing great! Looks to me like you have quite an aptitude for distance running if you can do 26m by accident off such little training. With your schedule I would probably have a slightly lighter few days now to make sure you are up to doing another good long run at the weekend (say 20-24m), then a conventional 2 week taper. Good luck!
The_Saint Apr 2017 4:01pm, 2 Apr 2017 5,999 posts	0 The_Saint It is very hard to stick to but always remember the adage that it is better to start a marathon under-trained than over-tired.
Jenni Apr 2017 6:40am, 3 Apr 2017 2 posts	0 Jenni Thanks guys!