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Perfect Fall Marathon Taper
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Tapering, where you ease up on training about three weeks out from your goal endurance event, lets your body recover just enough while maintaining your fitness level so you’re ready to perform on race day. Although how you taper depends a bit on how you train, there are three main things you should focus on during your marathon taper to help ensure a successful performance on race day.
Training Volume
Although the volume of running you do during your taper weeks is highly dependent on what kind of marathon training plan you followed in the previous 12-18 weeks, there are a few general tried-and-true guidelines to follow when it comes to cutting back on mileage ahead of race day.
Generally, you want to cut your training volume by 20 to 30 per cent each week from your highest volume week, which is typically between three to four weeks out from race day. So, for example, if you are training for a marathon and you ran a total of 55 kilometres (two 7.5 km runs, one 4 km run, and one 36 km run) four weeks out from your race, you could run a total of 39 kilometres (two 7.5 km runs at marathon pace with 4-7 minutes of repetitions in each, one 4 km run, and one 20 km run) the following week; a total of 28 kilometres (two 7.5 km runs at marathon pace and one 13 km run) the next week; and the week before the race you could do two easy 5 km runs and one easy 3 km run with a few pick-ups near the end to get the legs moving.
Even though you may feel like you could run farther and faster during taper, please don’t: your body needs this time to recover and get ready so you can give it your all on race day.
Nutrition
During the first and second week of taper, focus on eating lots of fresh, healthy foods, staying hydrated and upping your protein intake slightly to help with muscle repair. Keep your carbohydrate consumption the same until the last three days before your race. During that time, eat an extra 100-200 grams of carbs per day to boost glycogen stores in your muscle —your primary source of fuel on race day. The night before the race, don’t feel like you need to inhale a huge bowl of pasta—take in complex carbs during each meal over the entire day and have a light and healthy dinner (like baked chicken and rice with a salad), one that you know sits well with you and won’t cause any stomach upset while you’re running 42.2 kilometres.
Rest and repair
We all know sleep = repair, so get as much shut-eye as you can over the next few weeks. If you can, book a pre-race therapeutic massage about five to seven days out from the race. Not only is a pre-race massage relaxing (and might help you sleep better), but also can increase blood flow, reduce muscle soreness, and restore joint range of motion. You should also take at least two whole days off from exercise per week during your taper, easing up to just three or four shorts runs the week before the race. Trust you’ve put in the mileage needed by this point, and remember that more does not equal is not better (unless it’s rest) the week before a marathon.
