More taper advice

3 watchers

DeeGee Mar 2012 8:18am, 20 Mar 2012 11,315 posts	0 DeeGee I'm taking this taper seriously as I'm not convinced that when I've done it in the past I've done myself justice. I understand the concept of cutting back mileage, so from a peak week of: 5-10-X-12-5-X-22 = 54 miles I'm cutting back this week to: X-10-X-10-5-15 = 40 miles and will prune training in a similar way over the next couple of weeks (ie drop 20% or so a week) The sessions in my normal week are Tuesday (warm up, speedwork, cool down - total of 8-10 miles although nor more than 6 as a session) , Thursday (10-12 miles, 7-8 of which are approaching PMP) and Sunday's LSR. The two shorter sessins are a commute to work where I run by feel. Now, I have two questions: 1) does that look like a sensible cut of mileage, or is it too drastic or not enough? 2) how should I approach the "sessions"? My training partners are generally gearing up for a marathon two weeks after mine, so I'm now in taper and they're in their peak? Should I still try and hang on to them in the speed session, or would it be worth my while now to run with the slighlty slower runners and concentrate on PMP and slower? Should I convert my PMP run on Thursday to some steady running? Should I keep doing the LSR at PMP+75s ish? I've got the endurance to finish the race, as I'm slowly becoming a multi-marathonner, but I want to finish it strongly. I only focus on a maximum of two marathons a year, so am keen to do well, and my training thus far has been pretty damn-well spot-on. Any advice?
daviec Mar 2012 10:26am, 20 Mar 2012 2,339 posts	0 daviec Volume down, intensity stays the same. I'll be doing 3 x 1600 at 5k pace the week before race week. In race week I'll do a couple of miles at MP on the Wednesday and everything else will be very easy.
rf_fozzy Mar 2012 10:39am, 20 Mar 2012 2,176 posts	0 rf_fozzy Some advice from my coach and a couple of others is not to drop the mileage down too much too quickly because you go into the marathon feeling a bit "stale" This could be wrong, and it might not work, but I'm doing a 70mi week next week, then tapering down for a fast 10k on the friday, then bringing the mileage back up to about 45ish the following week, and then drop right down to at the most 20 on the week of London. Having seen Tracey Morris' training diary, on the week of the marathon, she did 7 mon, 6 tues, 5 wed, then nothing - I'm going to be pretty similar to this I think. She also used to do a fast 10k the weekend before, but for me, I think this is too close, hence I'm doing it 2 weeks out instead.
DeeGee Mar 2012 12:26pm, 20 Mar 2012 11,318 posts	0 DeeGee So I'm going to go into tonight's speed session with gusto, if my legs will allow...
Maclennane Apr 2012 9:31am, 11 Apr 2012 18,307 posts	0 Maclennane Was reading the triathlon training bible last night (I know...) apparently, frequency and intensity stay the same, volume should drop, pretty much in line with what you've written. What I'm confused about is the 10-21 days dependent on length of race, fitness level... I'm probably going to do two weeks as usual, but do 5 running sessions a week, not too far. And I've got cycling to worry about, for transport.
Discovery Dave Sep 2013 4:20pm, 24 Sep 2013 13,614 posts	0 Discovery Dave Argh. Tapering for marathon in two weeks. On Saturday I ran 30 miles. Can just about move legs again. What the hell do I do now?
Canute Sep 2013 10:31am, 25 Sep 2013 786 posts	0 Canute As the goal of the taper is optimising recovery while maintaining fluency, I would be inclined to do one or two short easy recovery runs, and then a couple of sessions in which you do some relaxed stride-outs (but not too many; perhaps 6x80m). Once your legs are moving fluently, a shortish run including about 2 Km at MP will probably help. But above all, you need to maximise recovery.
Thespare Jan 2014 4:27pm, 24 Jan 2014 6 posts	0 Thespare I'm doing a half-marathon on Feb 23rd, virtually my first, and I ran 14 miles last week. So what do I do now? I'm tapering from Feb 10th, but between now and then I'm planning long runs for the next 3 weekends of 9+, 10+ and 11+ miles. Does this seem like the right approach? I don't think it would be a great idea to run the full distance on any of those weekends, but I don't want the full distance to be a horrible shock on the day. Does this seem like the right approach? I also cycle to work, although I'm planning to go by car the Friday before the half. Please advise!!
DeeGee Jan 2014 5:33pm, 24 Jan 2014 15,271 posts	0 DeeGee That seems fine to me.