Taper time anyone?

--amadeus--

A lot of us who are doing Spring marathons are either going into or are in tapers so I thought it might be an idea to pull out all of teh wisdom on tapers and put it out there for the newbies...

Why taper?
The taper is needed to ensure that you go into a marathon in good shape. It is a period of (relative) rest that allows your stressed muscles to rebuild. By reducing mileage you prepare physically for teh challenge ahead and give yourself mental time to focus on the task in hand. Critically you also give your body time to recover from those little knocks, strains and niggles that consistent mileage creates while lowering your risks of picking up a new injury.

How long should I taper for?
Follow you training plan! Most plans will have 2 - 3 weeks of reduced mileage and your longest run will usually be three weeks before your race. Taper for more time than this and you risk losing some of that hard won fitness. Also teh taper is notorious for mind games (see Taper Madness, below) so shorter is better from that perspective! But it does need to be long enough that you get a proper change to recover and recuperate.

How light should my taper be?
Again that will depend on teh mileage you have been doing and you should always trust your training plan as teh taper will be designed to be proportional. Remember a couple of key things though. Don't do what I do and assume that less running means no running! You still need to train to prevent fitness loss. And maintain teh intensity of your running but reduce teh volume - so keep doing intervals at your planned pace but do fewer of them, for example.

What's carb loading?
Carbs are your bodies key fuel source. the carb loading theory is that you progressively increase your carb intake in teh three days prior to the race to ensure that you go to teh line as fully fuelled as possible. Lots of rice and pasta are ideal, spuds are ok. I also tend to use a carb drink. Be aware that your body stores fluid and carbs in a 3:1 ratio - three grammes of fluid stored for every gramme of carbs. This means that you need to stay hydrated and that you may well feel bloated and heavy in teh days (and especially hours) before the race. Don't worry, this is normal and you'll need all that fluid during teh race!

You may come across teh idea of carb depletion, particularly if you go into a sports nutrition store. This is teh theory that you should avoid carbs for a period of days while exercising. This burns off the bodies carb stores and - according to the theory - will prompt a greater retention of carb storage when you enter teh carb loading phase. Bodybuilders still seem to use this method and will push it quite hard. IGNORE THEM!!! This has been scientifically proven to be incorrect (Noakes in teh Lore of Running discusses it, for example). You don't need to deplete, just load.

Whats "Taper Madness"?
Like death and taxes teh taper madness affects us all, but to a greater or lesser degree. Taper madness is teh name given to teh mind games that you play with yourself in the days and weeks leading up to teh race. You haven't doine enough training. Everyone else has done more. you didn't do enough long runs. you did too many long runs. You're losing fitness. One more long run won't hurt. your target is too fast. Your target is too slow. Everyone else at teh expo looks REALLY fast... And so on!

Ignore it, it's common. Focus on teh good stuff in your training because it's too late to change it now anyway. Believe in yourself, because if you don't no-one else will!

That's my bit - what would teh rest of you add?

TheRoadRunner

I hate tapering. It's great getting to a point where you know all the hard miles are done but I get stale quite quick so I generally have a shorter taper than most other marathon runners I know.

hunnymonster

my taper starts today and I'm already cranky. I'm a complete witch in the run up to a race. I don't know if it's the taper, the worry about the race, the extra time to think about stuff but I'm not a nice person.

Sumac

Running Rotterdam on the 5th of April

Did my last long run on Saturday.
Will do about 45 miles this week with 1 tempo session. will do 12 miles at the weekend and the real tapering will start for the last 2 weeks.
Planning to do about 30 miles next week so that won't be too bad. Last week is the worst - will worry about injuries, getting sink, not getting enough sleep (which can lead to not sleeping enough!!)

Peckham

Am I the only one who loves tapering?! After 16-18 weeks of intensive training, there's nothing better than having a lie-in on Saturday/Sunday morning - it being easier to get out for a 10-13 mile "long" run, rather than the 16-20 mile runs that you've become accustomed to dominating your weekends.

Taper madness is just down to nerves because the big day is getting closer, so if you've faith in your training, tapering shouldn't bother you.

Peckham

Sumac wrote: »

Last week is the worst - will worry about injuries, getting sink, not getting enough sleep (which can lead to not sleeping enough!!)

You can't control them, so why worry about them? That's key in avoiding taper madness - pretty much all these things are in the laps of the marathon Gods, so let them look after themselves. The only things you can control is your diet, rest and taper training, so focus on these and forget about the rest.

hot to trot

I too am going my first mara on April 5th. Just finished longest run so far this weekend and it went well. I think the cut down in running /tapering is overestimated from looking at my schedule.. this weeks mileage is the same as the last month for the easier weeks and only next weeks seems to be cut back. I thought that I would have had loads of time to go to the gym and catch up with other body work but honestly there doesnt seem to be much extra time available. I expected to be doing far less . Am getting nervous though :eek:

Whats the earliest - all going well that one could seriously consider doing another marathon? I wasnt a bit sore or anything after my 22. I know the 26 will be different but any general guidelines? MY programme has me doing two short runs 4 and 7 days after the race.

Running Bing

I think another thing people need to be aware of during taper is putting on weight. You will be doing a lot less running than usual and judging by posts on other running forums a lot of people seem to be under the impression that for the two weeks leading to the marathon you eat three bowls of pasta for breakfast, five for lunch and three pizza's for dinner.

Stupid_Private

hot to trot wrote: »

MY programme has me doing two short runs 4 and 7 days after the race.

Listen to your body - no programme can tell you when to start running after a marathon. You have to see the effects the marathon had on you first. I can guarantee I won't be putting runners near my feet for at least a week after my marathon.

Slogger Jogger

I'm in the taper haters club. I like getting through the milestone for the last big run, but I'm not a good rester (as people will see from my own training log). Having run the last big run yesterday for Rotterdam its difficult for me to rest today, but I'm sticking to it. Maybe its the taper madness kicking in.

geld

Peckham wrote: »

Am I the only one who loves tapering?! After 16-18 weeks of intensive training, there's nothing better than having a lie-in on Saturday/Sunday morning - it being easier to get out for a 10-13 mile "long" run, rather than the 16-20 mile runs that you've become accustomed to dominating your weekends.

Peckham, that makes two of us. Maybe it's something to do with my football backround. For me the match was always the big thing as opposed to the training. Don't get me wrong I always enjoyed the training but the match day was why I trained in the first place. Kinda like the training is now all done now get out there and perform.

From a marathon perspective the taper gives me a chance to do some other things that running restricts me from doing. I usually pencil a few things that have not made it to the top of the "to do list". I also feel that the body(mine!) needs some space to recover for the big day.

Stupid_Private

geld wrote: »

From a marathon perspective the taper gives me a chance to do some other things that running restricts me from doing. I usually pencil a few things that have not made it to the top of the "to do list". I also feel that the body(mine!) needs some space to recover for the big day.

If you can manage to tackle a "to do list" during your taper I need to know... How much time do you spend running and how much do you cut that back?

If I run 6 days a week normally, my taper would see me running 6 days a week. If the norm is a 10 mile run, it may be 8 miles during taper week 1, the next 6... A whooping 30 mins of my day is saved on race week... can't see me starting into a todo list with them kind of savings!

barkar

--amadeus-- wrote: »

What's carb loading?
Carbs are your bodies key fuel source. the carb loading theory is that you progressively increase your carb intake in teh three days prior to the race to ensure that you go to teh line as fully fuelled as possible. Lots of rice and pasta are ideal, spuds are ok. I also tend to use a carb drink. Be aware that your body stores fluid and carbs in a 3:1 ratio - three grammes of fluid stored for every gramme of carbs. This means that you need to stay hydrated and that you may well feel bloated and heavy in teh days (and especially hours) before the race. Don't worry, this is normal and you'll need all that fluid during teh race!

You may come across teh idea of carb depletion, particularly if you go into a sports nutrition store. This is teh theory that you should avoid carbs for a period of days while exercising. This burns off the bodies carb stores and - according to the theory - will prompt a greater retention of carb storage when you enter teh carb loading phase. Bodybuilders still seem to use this method and will push it quite hard. IGNORE THEM!!! This has been scientifically proven to be incorrect (Noakes in teh Lore of Running discusses it, for example). You don't need to deplete, just load.

I just posted on the connemarathon thread bout this , should have posted here i suppose, i have read that you should take in an additional 4.5 grms for every lb of weight additional to your normal requirements for 1-2 days coming up to the race not necessarily the friday and Saturday of a sunday race but more like a Thursday and Friday to give yourself time to digest etc.Does this seem accurate? , for me it would mean eating a 500grm bag of pasta and a coupleof large bowls of porridge for two days (images of Paul Newman in cool hand luke flash before me !)

I agree with d taper madness hate it hate it (especiailly if you are injury prone coming up to the last few weeks )

geld

Stupid_Private wrote: »

If you can manage to tackle a "to do list" during your taper I need to know... How much time do you spend running and how much do you cut that back?

If I run 6 days a week normally, my taper would see me running 6 days a week. If the norm is a 10 mile run, it may be 8 miles during taper week 1, the next 6... A whooping 30 mins of my day is saved on race week... can't see me starting into a todo list with them kind of savings!

Point taken SP. I think this might boil down to the fact that you and I are at different ends of the running ability spectrum. ( I had a quick look at your blog) I don't do the sort of mileage that you do and my marathon times are much slower. Looking through the previous posts I think I can say that generally the more "elite" runners hate the taper. Mine involves actually dropping a run or two as opposed to reducing the length.

--amadeus--

barkar wrote: »

I just posted on the connemarathon thread bout this , should have posted here i suppose, i have read that you should take in an additional 4.5 grms for every lb of weight additional to your normal requirements for 1-2 days coming up to the race not necessarily the friday and Saturday of a sunday race but more like a Thursday and Friday to give yourself time to digest etc.Does this seem accurate? , for me it would mean eating a 500grm bag of pasta and a coupleof large bowls of porridge for two days (images of Paul Newman in cool hand luke flash before me !)

I agree with d taper madness hate it hate it (especiailly if you are injury prone coming up to the last few weeks )

Those figures look about right - 10grms per kilo of body weight in teh days just before the race. It's a huge amount, which is why I top off with carb drinks. Detailed reading here and here.

Stupid_Private

geld wrote: »

Point taken SP. I think this might boil down to the fact that you and I are at different ends of the running ability spectrum. ( I had a quick look at your blog) I don't do the sort of mileage that you do and my marathon times are much slower. Looking through the previous posts I think I can say that generally the more "elite" runners hate the taper. Mine involves actually dropping a run or two as opposed to reducing the length.

Don't get me wrong geld... I LOVE tapering. Hell, these days I only race to give myself a lighter week of training before and after. Tapering is the best time, that and trying to eat my body weight in pasta in the last few days. I'm all about the extra energy you get in the days before the marathon. I find that a lot of people take their tapering too easy - ie I've trained hard for 14 weeks, now I get 3 weeks off type a thing.

TheRoadRunner

Stupid_Private wrote: »

ie I've trained hard for 14 weeks, now I get 3 weeks off type a thing.

I agree, that sort of attitude can come back to bite you in the ass. 3 weeks completely easy before marathon day is not a good idea. A taper should still include some quality aerobic sessions, just ease back slightly on the quantity of miles week by week.