Table of Contents:
MARATHON TAPER TIPS Quick and EASY TIPS to get you a PB!
Video taken from the channel: Ben Parkes
What Is A Marathon Taper? | Tapering Tips For Runners
Video taken from the channel: The Running Channel
HOW TO TAPER BEFORE A RACE! | Sage Running Tips and Advice
Video taken from the channel: Vo2maxProductions
How To Taper Before A Race | Common Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
Video taken from the channel: Dusty Spiller Triathlon
How to Taper Before a Tune-up Half Marathon: Episode 24 of Q&A with Coach
Video taken from the channel: StrengthRunning
How To Taper Before A Race
Video taken from the channel: The Run Experience
HOW TO TAPER BEFORE A MARATHON (OR HALF MARATHON /ULTRA) Sage Canaday Running Training
Video taken from the channel: Vo2maxProductions
Your weekend long run at the first week of your taper (two weeks before the marathon) should be a 12to 14-miler at the same pace—not faster—as the previous week’s 20.How to Taper Before Running a Marathon The Benefits of Tapering. Boosts Muscle Power: Tapering at least two weeks prior to an event has been shown to boost 3 Weeks Before Your Marathon.
Do your last long run or long race three weeks before the marathon. Treat this long run as 2 Weeks Before.Tapering begins immediately upon completing your last long training run, which is usually between 20 and 23 miles. Tapering means reducing the volume of.
Taper for a marathon: Overview Three weeks before goal race. The first week of tapering for a marathon won’t be hard and might actually feel relieving Two weeks before goal race. Reduce your weekly mileage to 70 to 75% of maximum.
Two weeks before your.Tapering 1 -3 Days Before a Marathon. You should be used to getting up at race time by this point, and now the focus really needs to be on staying as stress free and relaxed as you can be. If you are nervous before the marathon. Spend lots of time chatting to your loved ones.
Enjoy Your Final Training Phase—Tapering The tapering period usually is scheduled for the last two to three weeks before your marathon. Many coaches suggest a full three weeks to give athletes proper time to recover and to restore depleted glycogen and enzymes to their optimum levels.How to Taper As a general rule, you’ll want to begin the taper three weeks ahead of race day, right after your last really long run. (You’ll still have long runs the following two weekends, but they’ll be considerably shorter than your max.) Each week, you’ll scale back your totals by about ten to 15 percent.During your taper, make sure to do a (shorter than usual) tempo run every week, ideally at your goal marathon pace. For example, if you have been doing 30-minute tempos, move that to 20 minutes.
If you want to taper for three weeks, then you can add a tempo run one week and an interval workout (i.e. a track workout) another.Some runners need lots of running in a taper just to avoid the self-doubt spiral. Others need less running so they don’t feel mentally drained before even taking a step. But when possible, try to retain the general contours of your tested training structure so your body and brain don’t put.
A taper for a marathon is usually 2 weeks long and includes gradual decrease in training volume. Intensity, however, should remain high until several days out from the race. Even though the volume of running is going down it’s important not to spent all that extra time on the couch.Marathon Taper Schedule In my own experience, it is a good decision to start with your taper three weeks before the date of the marathon. High-mileage runners (over 80 miles a week) may wish to start four weeks before.
On the other hand, a runner with a low mileage schedule (less than 40 miles a week) may only need one or two weeks.Starting your Taper approximately 3 weeks before your marathon will allow you plenty of time to decrease the mileage whilst retaining the intensity of training. In other words, run shorter distances but still put in the same effort – it doesn’t mean just relying on slow jogging for a.A well-designed training plan likely already has a taper built in.
The typical protocol involves reducing the total amount of your running—what.HOW TO TAPER BEFORE A MARATHON (OR HALF MARATHON /ULTRA) Sage Canaday Running Training How to Taper for a Marathon Prepare to Run Your Best Marathon [Ep46] HOW TO TAPER BEFORE A MARATHON (OR HALF MARATHON /ULTRA) What to Eat Before Running A Half Marathon To Run Your Fastest Race Ever
List of related literature:
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| from Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons | |
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| from Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide | |
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| from Advanced Marathoning | |
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| from Hansons Marathon Method: Run Your Fastest Marathon the Hansons Way | |
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| from The Art of Running Faster | |
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| from The Triathlete’s Training Bible: The World’s Most Comprehensive Training Guide, 4th Ed. | |
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| from Runner’s World Complete Book of Running: Everything You Need to Run for Weight Loss, Fitness, and Competition | |
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| from Training Essentials for Ultrarunning: How to Train Smarter, Race Faster, and Maximize Your Ultramarathon Performance | |
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| from The Cyclist’s Training Bible | |
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| from Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes, 3rd Ed. |
109 comments
Very good tips. Currently in the process within 3 weeks for my race. I think I almost ready for race day but being cautious.
In your opening, what is the location/river with the nice path beside it?
That diagram is really helpful with a long ultra on my horizon 8 weeks from now
My halfmarathon is 12 days away from now and my fullmarathon is 20 days away.. i took a vacation already for 2 weeks with no running at all.. should i taper these last days or no?
Hi Sage, do you also base your mountain ultra training plans on weekly distance? I run 80k per week on average, peaking to 100-120 before taper for big races (UTMB etc.), but I base my training on time rather than distance, as it takes foreeeeever to cover 40-50k in the mountains when training. My weekly long runs would peak at 40/50k with 4000+ metres of vertical, but these runs would take 6-8 hours depending on route. Keen to hear your take on distance vs. time for ultra training.
First! This video posted at the right time for me, have a race soon
It’s true:) before my first half marathon I only race 2 times in that week, both them easy run:)
During the race, I felt fine and fresh:D
Awesome videos and advices
Thanks sage. I will be running my first half in August and I’m building base now. I was wondering what you think about pfigzinger trainings plan?
Hello Ben. Quick question. My next race is a very flat course. Should I still include hill runs in my training? Thx
I’m sorry but IMO too much volume too close to race day. 88 miles two weeks out? 60 miles a week out? There is no way you can lose fitness in a week or even two (over three weeks you could). Saying, “My body is used to that much mileage,” I think that is more psychological. With some more rest you would see better results. Yes some speed maintenance needed, but not that much volume. In the last marathon you reported feeling bad early in the race; that shouldn’t happen. Many times you point to “overtraining” or “undertraining”.. I would reconsider the taper phase (“undertapering”, if you will). Anyway, just trying to help. Good luck at the Boston; I hope you achieve your goal time.
Hey Sage, quick question, what role does strength training play in your tapering phase?
This is not impeccable timing, this is flat out telepathy Sage, thank you so much!
Great video, your channel is really developing my running. You should do participate in the Threshold Trail series.
Sage! I live in gunnison! It’s like the closest thing to Lake City! ��
I’ve been running 47 years and have done a number of marathons and ultras. I’m about 2 1/2 weeks out from an ultra that has been on my radar for a long time. This is a great video, and some of the best advice I’ve heard in years. Great job!
I had a trial 10km race in May this year. I had been out of action for 4 weeks prior to my race with some mild inflammation in my kneecap, so had not trained for 4 weeks. I was very nervous and feared I would lose all the improvement I had made. Got to my race and it could not have turned out any better. Not only did I run a really good race without any stops but I also beat my previous 10km race time by just over 10 minutes.
Sage, nice talk, timely arrived as I am in the middle of my tapering for a marathon
Hmmmmmm. I probably should have watched this video 4 weeks before my race instead of 4 days before it. At least I won’t go out and try to kill it 2 days before, like I was planning!
top taper tip don’t wear a pair of shorts for the first time on race day. No matter how good they look. Chafing hell will follow
Good luck Monday. I’m from the Boston area and I’ll be on the course somewhere. I hope to run it someday.
Will that t shirt you are wearing be available to buy please Ben?
Didn’t watch this before Park Run this morning. Have found you’re Strava channel ��
Great video as usual Ben. I’m not at marathon distance yet but with all these tips, see no reason not to push for one next year. Looking forward to the fun.. and pain!
Back into running from a 16 year absence (London 2003 3:41). Looking to get weight down and run faster. Did 10K last month, 1/2 Marathon in October then a beginners trail/”ultra” (run/crawl/walk) in Feb next year. Your channel has really helped me build momentum to get back running consistently. Loving running again so much thanks Ben:-)
https://pinoyathletics.info/is-it-better-to-rest-the-day-before-a-track-meet/ added this video to my post
Great video as always mate I used your program for my 1st marathon and loved it I have my second marathon in November and il be using your program again ����
Not so fast with the water advice. I’ve heard some experts say that over-hydrating can flush valuable salts and nutrients out of the system. So don’t over do it. “You can’t drink enough… water all the time” Might be wrong, or imprecise, advice.
Absolutely… Sleeping is your best friend before the marathon race �� thanks for the informative video..coach Ben ����������
Thanks for the tips Coach Holly!! I’m making notes for my marathon coming up on April 8th. Love your channel. Love your content!! Thank you!
Best of luck for Boston. I have been following you for months and was happy to see you will be there. I am doing it myself.
Great video. I’m training for Berlin and training has been going really well. Last month would be about not messing it all up. Hope to smash my PB (and of course yours):)
Fellrnr recommends not running below race pace during the week before the race, but reducing the mileage. Had pretty good results with embedding a short race pace distance between short warm up & cool downs during taper week, then sitting in airports all day before the race.
Beginner question here… I look at training plans and they don’t even make sense to me because I don’t understand all the different training routines… tempo, speed, fartlek, surge, float… Is there a good guide somewhere to what all these terms mean and how to do them on your own (no coach, no special equipment besides a smartphone)? Thanks and good luck with your race!
I’m 10 weeks out from my first marathon so this is super helpful, thanks Ben.
In your opinion is it possible to run safely and with good results two marathons with only a month an an half in between, like for an example two spring or fall marathons rather than the usual couple a year (1 spring/ 1 fall) most runners do?
And if yes, how to prepare for the second and recover from the first in the right way?
Would it be a sort of long taper with some quality and speed in between?
Good tips! I got really scared and depressed at the Expo of my first Ironman 70.3. Race went well, though. The Adrenaline on race day does wonders!
Thanks for the info sage. Going for a BQ at Napa in two weeks, this will help me chill out while still doing a bit of fast stuff.
+Vo2maxProductions how can I bring my mile from 6:25 to 5:00. I’m a freshman. how long will this take
Thanks Ben, great tips here. I think I always ‘over taper’ by dropping too many runs. Will try and keep more of a pattern as you suggest.
I run 5000 meters everyday, my race is on 10 february.. how many days i should take rest and what to do on rest days?? it’s important for my career plz suggest
That’s great video again�� also I would like to know, after race first week recovering training plan as well��
No se lo que dices pero me gusta ver tus vídeos y darles like
In a previous q and a video someone asked about your running career. You said you had a few breakthroughs when your times really started dropping towards 2.30. Just wondering if you trained at these paces or felt good on the day and through caution to the wind and just went for it to achieve these break throughs? Maybe a question for the next q and a? Love your vids by the way and by far the best running channel on YouTube.
Cheers
yea, my issue is staying healthy as I add miles. even small increases puts my knees and feet into turmoil.
I’d like to know more regarding training when you are running a series or a number of races through the summer. Is it just an abbreviated schedule between? For instance I have a 50 mile race this weekend and a 50k in 6 weeks. Time for recovery, back to regular sessions then into another taper. Perhaps an idea for another training talk.
Thanks for the helpful perspective. Does the length of taper change for different lengths of races? A week seems a little short for a marathon, but I’m curious to hear your perspective.
Hey Sage,
My goal is sub 3.
With my first and only marathon of 3:37:05 and 8k PR of 33:59, how long might it take to go sub 3 and what initial steps should I take to get there? I’m 22 years old
Thank you!
Day before a race (if possible) I try to do atleast 5k and dynamic stretches around the race route. Super comfy pace with walking in-between too just to get a feel for the course and release some nerves (5k-HM Runner)
Newbs in the comments who are not marathoners giving advice… lol.
Got a Southampton Half Marathon this Sunday and I did one last Sunday and then another half on the Monday. 2 miles Tuesday and done 7.5 miles Wednesday. Might have a rest day today then got 5 miles Friday then doing my local park run Saturday and then an hour after I’m doing a 5 mile cross country run at Hurstbourne Tarrant. Then the following day I have the Southampton Half Marathon. 3 halves in one week.
My question is if your legs feel fine and you’re not aching is it still okay to run rather than tapering off?
Follow me on Strava: Allan Davis from Andover.
I’ve not seen any factual sport science about tapering in any videos on the subject, just ‘should dos’. I absolutely concur sleep is a key factor during that week. I lost all my race day energy in a recent 50 miler with poor sleep on the two days before. Months and months of training, wrecked from not resting enough on the Thursday, not sleeping well that night and not sleeping well the day before. On race day I had no power on the hills, which leading up to the event was a big strength.
What about when you race in the evening? Got a race in a week at 6pm. What should you do the day leading up to and what to avoid? And… I got to drive for a couple of hours the morning of the race:)
What are your thoughts on fasting, ketogenic diet, and being fat adapted vs using carbs as fuel for endurance training?
Nice….chart helps. Must feel very good to be race fit and….taper relaxing a bit.
With your training cycle i think you are over estimating the “super-compensation” This occurs when you have sustained planned over training, so your performance will be decreasing steadily over weeks of training, before doing a 10 day or so taper leading to a large increase in peak fitness. However with your training heading into Boston it seems you haven’t “over-worked” enough to put your body in a big fatigue state. Instead you have steadily increased over weeks, building to a peak for boston. A 2 week taper seems a bit much, research seems to be heading towards 10 day out tapers instead.
I was running about 35-40 miles a week. My last week I ran about 12 miles. Felt unbelievable on race day
I used your marathon training plan to complete my second marathon last week. Whilst the conditions meant I didn’t get the time I was after, I did get a 10+ minute Pb and I know I could get towards 20+ and beyond with my current level of fitness after following your guidance. Thanks Ben!
What does your camping set-up look like on these trips? A video on your mobile running headquarters would be neat to see. I drove out to CO from PA this summer and spent most nights in the National Forest camping out of my car and such. Great channel, keep up the good work.
I had been training for my first marathon utilizing this marathon training program “Zοrοtοn Axy” (Google it). This book has a wonderful training schedule and idea. If you`re running a marathon for the first time, you should attempt this informative guide. I have been running 5ks, 10k and half marathons and decided to take the following big step to the marathon..
I have a race on Sunday…good confirmation with my current plan.
Thanks Holly!
Will be attending my first 10K in a month’s time, & this channel has been a revelation, solid advice, great content, Thank You so much Team…….!!
Thanks for posting man. I’ve got the Blue Ridge Marathon in two weeks, so a little too close for me to want to change at this point. Decided on a three week taper this round. We’ll see how it goes!
Lake City is beautiful! I’ve never even talked with anyone else who’s ever heard of it. The first time I was there I made it to the top of Uncompahgre too ��
My first Marathon is in a month. I’m already nervous. I’ll do my thoughest workouts this week and start tapering the next, following your advice, guys. Wish me luck. Thanks!
Hiya Sage,
thanks for the video it was quite informative. I’ve always tapered quite differently to most. Normally a 12 day taper where the last 5 days have no running (sporting) at all. By the time race day hits my legs are itching like mad to be stretched out across the course. It’s great as long as I keep my head and don’t sprint all the energy out in the first few km.
A small point, but vitamin C isnt going to do much to keep you from getting sickits D3 you need, boosts the immune system, and also zinc
How do you guys feel about “upping” the amount of electrolytes you take in during your taper as well. Tons of coconut water and such?
Thanks Ben, helpful advice. I’m hoping to do a first marathon in 2020.
Good luck in Boston your looking very lean, do you go into marathons lighter or is it something you watch at all?
this might be surprising but for me I do high intensity cycling for 20mins a day leading up to a race with one day off before the race. No impact and I feel like it gets me used to the pain on race day
A lot of useful tip there Ben, I usually run 2-3 miles the day before just to keep the legs ticking over.
I appreciate all of the advice you freely share with we youtubers, as one who is getting back into running your videos are gold
Despite running plenty of half marathons without taper this will be the first time I do taper properly as it is built into my training plan. Appreciate the heads up on what is and isn’t normal to expect ����
I didn’t think running a few miles the day before a marathon was a good idea? Thank you for this video.
I wanted to start training for an ultra marathon after I finish my first marathon but then I did some research on ultra marathon running. Apparently running for extremely long distances scars your heart leaving permanent damage. It’s basically the same thing that happens to your liver if you are an alcoholic and get cirrhosis! Anyways good tips, just wanted to share that like anything, moderation is key!
Hi Ben, What is the song at 5:23??? Good luck with the Berlin/Frankfurt marathon training:D
Amazing tips, Ben! Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.
Awesome video Ben. Just getting back after a year of hip surgery after a labrum tearNYC in November. Love hearing from a fellow enthusiast! A gift for Ben/ followers below… questioncan you do a chat about race day, nutrition planning in particular. Is 12 gels necessary?? My gift, if you love running…. or want to explain to someone why they should fall in love with running…… https://vimeo.com/storyview/nyrr
Thanks for the information preparing for San Francisco Race I’m driving there, so I will have 4 days before race day!
Could you make similar video but for half marathon? There are plenty of videos and tips for marathon and/or race taping but pretty mucj no videos about half marathon taper. I would like to know your thoughts for exactly half marathon taper. We can assume same 50mpw and throw in the fact that half marathon isn’t as long and is at higher pace which imo should impact taper phase.
Hola me gustaría poder escuchar tus consejos en español,abrazo y gracias.
Hey Ben, this is once again very useful information! Do you plan to do a half marathon tune-up (100% effort) 4 to 6 weeks before your goal race? If so, will you do a mini-taper the week before and what will the week after the race look like? I am currently preparing a sub 2:40 attempt for my next marathon in October and I was wondering if I could benefit from tune-up race. Thank you!
Just finished week 1 of training for Valencia. 48.27miles in total with my first long run of 11 miles. Intend on increasing the long run by 2 miles each week with an easy week every 4 weeks. I usually do 4 or 5 21 milers in my training.
On my first marathon taper I literally did nothing whereas when I did my last one (Hamburg in April) I kept quite active and it certainly worked for me. I made sure I ate as well as I could, laid off any alcohol and tried to get as much rest as I could.
Great work Ben and I am looking forward to your next episode!
Thanks for the tips, BP ��
I’m in taper mode right now, hoping for a good race ����
Holly you rock, love your advice and presentation style.��������♀️
Some great advice there.I thought ‘taper’ was the name of a race. lol.
Joking aside, I’m terrible for not allowing proper rest before and after a marathon.
question: what about the pacing in that tune up half?
should be all out pace or, practice the marathon pace and see how it really feels?
what´s the best way to do it, I am trying a PR marathont his november, and there is a half marathon in september, any advice??
Taping is is one of the best tips I’ve had this year I run daily and so far this year I’ve run #228 days on the trot I started running as I used to bursts of 4,6, 8, 12 miles a week and after 2 months my legs felt shot after my colleague told me to run daily just run a minimum of 2 miles for those taper days and run 2 days on the trot (at recovery run pace) and by day three I ready for race day (my races were only half marathons this year) don’t get me wrong it I had a day off a week I’d be getting PBs but my challenge is to run every day this year not get PBs good luck every one #RunEveryDay Great link Ben
My tip is to (if your economy allows it) to book a hotel room close to the race so to reduce stress of getting there in time + Im a huge fan of hotel breakfast ��Just a stroll down to the race and you are good to go!
Perfect timing, the Cincinnati Flying Pig marathon is 2.5 weeks away. Good luck in the Boston, you can do it!
Hi Sage I have a half marathon on coming Sunday. I did 16k today @ 4:12 pace. Can you please advise plan for the coming week? I am targeting 1:28 for my half,
I always do a 30K, eight days before the Marathon. Real low intensity!
And then a 5K at full blat the next day.
Then a day with an hour of easy biking. Real easy, high pedaling speed.
Then a day with approx. 3K easy run. Restitution time at a max of 12 hours.
Then a Rest Day (really resting)
Then a repeat of the 3K easy run.
Then nothing for two days.
And then the RACE!
Its really important to keep intensity low in the last week, so all training is actually active restitution.
The non-run days before the race makes me hungry to running.
But I’m a really bad sleeper in general (PTSD), so I need a very precise ritual the night before the race, if I’m to get propper sleep.
Sometimes it works ����
For intermediate runners, could you use this same system for half marathon? Thanks
I admire your running and your ability. But please stop saying 2.25 marathoner. So cringey!
The key message here is everybody is different and different things work for different people. The secret is to experiment and find out what works for you, don’t copy someone else’s plan. Also I prefer to work on time ran not distances i.e. if you usually run for 3 hours a week then cut down the time you run to suit, forgetting about miles or kilometers. Also as you age rest becomes even more important than when you are younger. Tapering is more than cutting down the miles or time, it’s your sleep, diet etc as Sage mentioned. As for the comments about getting faster what most people don’t realize is that the body system changes take years not weeks or months so persistence and consistency is the key. Be patient!
hey sage! could you do a gear video. not just what you have but also what you have from every thing? or to do a video about how to jump from lets say 90-100 k weeks to 120-130 weeks?
thank you!
Hey sage, can you make a video on tapering for track events like the mile.
Hey Ben, I don’t know if you remember my comment but before I watch the video I just wanted to say I tried your technique (for the stitches) for another Parkrun and managed to get my pb. I didn’t get any stitches at all and that was definitely the reason. Thanks for all the advice!
Perfectly planned and filmed, as always, Ben! ���� Wonderful and realistic content that’s very useful for runners like me, and pretty informative to know your thoughts!
Thanks so much Ben, keep it up!
For my last 10K race, I totally messed up the taper.*Didn’t run the 6 days before the race* �� The information you shared in there was pretty useful for me.
This was a really good video. Well presented and loved the graphics. Nice work
Hi Ben, thanks for the terrific work on the channel and the always sound advice! Quick question, will there be any video in the future about carbo-loading tips during the final week before the marathon?
Hello Ben! I don’t know if you will be making a kind of “q&a” video or if you can simply answer this question. The thing is that I work as a sales associate 5 days a week around 6 hours each of those days. As you may imagine, I spend a lot of time standing and not to much sitting. So my legs are never at their best. I already use good shoes. Is there any advice you can give me so I can improve my recovery and leg “health”??? Thanks!
This year I have to go with 4 week taper because of… well life… what would you recommend in this scenario?
Man I love your channel and what you’re doing. The world needs more super positive people like you.
8 weeks of training for a marathon. Bouncing back from an injury only to get another, but it was mild. Now I’m 3 weeks away been doing good with training thus far. Don’t know if I should do a last long run before tapering.
Is speed work necessary for 5k and stuff? I don’t feel like it is because most people can sprint 4 minute mile pace so it’s more of an endurance thing. What’s your opinion?
Great tips! Running my first marathon and plan on cutting my mileage down 4-3 weeks out until the week of and run small distances:)
Videos are awesome Ben, can you go through (if you haven’t already) the different kit that you use for differing whether conditions ie raining and/ or cold
Thanks for the tips �� running my first marathon next May ��