"I'd rather be seen on my bicycle than on a park run" - Quote from the dark side

Monday 1 March 2010

Cutting back and tapering for my marathon

I’ve reached the peak of my marathon training and now enter a three week taper/cutback period. Reading other blogs one thing is certain, not many runners enjoy the taper period. Aren’t we stupid? We all know how good it is for us, but still we don’t like it. I ran 305.6km in January and 293km in Feb. These legs are happy there’s tapering coming up. They need (and deserve) the rest. It’s just difficult to convince my mind how much rest.



So what do I do to get through the three weeks? I handle the first two weeks by cutting back but still run my normal 6 days per week. I also include two races which I’ll just run comfortably. A half marathon the first Sunday and a 15km the second Sunday. This way I should still feel as if I’m just running as normal and not really tapering. Remember I’m actually training for some ultras and the marathon is just a stepping stone in the buildup process. The only reason I’m resting up a bit before this marathon is because I want to use it to qualify for the Comrades marathon. So it is important to have a good run. If it wasn’t for the qualifying, I wouldn’t taper and use the marathon as a LSD run.

The third week will be a proper taper week with complete rest the two days before the marathon. My three taper weeks will be as follow:

Week 1
Mon: Rest
Tue: 9km
Wed: 15.1km
Thu: 9km
Fri: 12.2km
Sat: 5km
Sun: 21.1km (Vaal Half Marathon)

Week 2
Mon: Rest
Tue: 9km
Wed: 15.1km
Thu: 9km
Fri: 12.2km
Sat: 5km
Sun: 15km (Alberton 15km)

Week 3
Mon: Rest
Tue: 9km
Wed: 6km
Thu: Rest
Fri: Rest
Sat: 42.2km (Elands Valley Marathon)
Sun: Rest

This is still a fairly busy schedule and I think this should get me through the taper thing without too much frustration.

4 comments:

Pinky said...

Are you sure this is the schedule for your taper weeks…?

Thomas Tan said...

Hi Johann,

I find cross-training helpful to get me through the tapering period. I do spin classes or bike outside. But remember, rest is one of the most underappreciated aspects of training--this is the time when your body heals and builds muscles. So take advantage of it!

Good luck in your marathon!

Thomas

ajh said...

Good luck in the taper. I often enjoy the guilt free smaller mileage. I hope you qualify!

Miguel said...

very ambitious taper...but I'm looking at it from a different perspective. How mnay km are you doing on trails as opposed to roads?
Good luck in your qualifying race. I'll come back to check your progress.