Tapering for Boston and feel like garbage: input?

It is definitely normal to feel like garbage during a marathon taper. It is also normal to feel sluggish and winded on a workout that you think you should just cruise through. On the bright side, you haven't mentioned any "phantom pains" that are also common during the taper. My recomendation is this: do not time yourself tomorrow. Run by feel. Run your 400s comfortably hard but don't worry about the specific pace. You will be fine.

PS Also on the bright side... you don't have a nasty cold like me!

Thats the hard part about a taper. There may have been some tihngs on weeks before that affected what you are doing now. At 80MPW I might have suggested a 4 week taper but that being said...just get in your head as this is always important during the final week. You have done the work, you are fit, and come race day you have to put out there what you trained with and for...see ya in Boston! Good luck!

You have reduced your weekly volume by too much. Remember, the marathon is an aerobic event. Why would you move so far away from aerobic training right when you are about to need that system the most? Think about it.

I've been feeling the same way this week. I just ran my last long run 13miles with the last 2 in marathon pace and felt like crap the whole time. When I was at MP, I was thinking "there is no way I can keep this up for 26mi". It sucked. I'm happy to see I'm no the only one.

I think we expect to feel great because we're tapering, but we forget that running is rarely a walk in the park. It's not like you're sitting on the couch watching TV. When you expect to output zero effort, you get nervous when it's not completely comfortable. I think it's more mental than physical.

going from 80 down to 65 two weeks out is too much? I don't think so. It's not like he's going to lose all that aerobic base in 14 days. What do you think he should do, go from 80 to 75?

To the OP: I think it's normal to feel that way. I do right now. How you feel right now is no indicator of how you'll feel on Monday. Now that someone has mentioned the phantom throat pains, you'll probably start getting them.

never let feelings before the race starts influence your attitude. get in to the flow of the race and see what happens. on race day i frequently did not want to run a race but found the results much better than i expected, occasionally a PR.

as for your workout i would take a full recovery after each 400. my experience is to always be conservative near a race.

I felt like death the Thursday before Houston this past January, like almost DNS death... However, relaxed the last couple of days, carbo loaded on Saturday and ran a big PR on Sunday....

I'm also running Boston on Monday, though I don't feel like death my runs to feel like a little extra effort is needed for certain paces... Its the taper mind games... But you have to:

1. Trust all of the training you've put in. It really isn't going to go all away in the span of a week...

2. Realize that it will all comeback Monday @ 10am...

I personally think too much is worse than too little at this stage...

Now if we can only get a Westerly wind.....

What you're going thru is so common I have a name for it ("taperitis"). Your week reads like it's been practically lifted from an old log of mine befoe I race where I ran pretty well.

I typically feel very lousy until 2-3 days before. Sometimes I dontl even feel good the day of, but yourl;e training so you can run when you feel bad, b/c anyone can run when they feel good.

I do a really really sharp taper, 3 weeks. My last week is maybe 35 miles.

Some differences....my last track practice (Wed or Thur for a Monday race) is 8 x 300 at mile-3k pace, with a 2:00 rest (full rest). Enough work to feel like I am working your muscles again, not enough to make me tired. And it's so much faster than marathon pace b/c I don't want to teach myself a stride rhythm that might feel kinda sorta like natural mthn pace on race day but be suicidally faster than it shd be.

For Monday race, I do maybe 25:00 of jogging on Friday. on Saturday (even if it's travel day) I do a "warmup" -- sweats on, jog 10-15 minutes near home until I break a sweat, and then stop. Day before the marathon off.

JonH wrote:

You have reduced your weekly volume by too much. Remember, the marathon is an aerobic event. Why would you move so far away from aerobic training right when you are about to need that system the most? Think about it.

Because it is taper time, of course. Far too late to improve his aerobic system and not long enough to harm it.

My training for this one (my 13th) has been woefully inadequate, but I'm good with it. I'm not even "tapering" in the conventional sense - my whole training season has felt like one long taper. Due to return from injury, I only logged three 20-milers (and walked during 2 of them) at super-slow speed.

I used to be DSL, now I'm dial-up.

Anyway, PR's are ancient history and I'm just doing this one to take in the event as a spectator with a bib number. I have no great expectations, I just want to walk away with a bunch of good memories. Like the Red Sox, there's always next year.

Good luck to all who are at the start in Hopkinton next Monday!

Get a massage today or tomorrow at the latest. Nothing too deep. I would also try an ice bath, but you will run the risk of catching a sniffle.

You may be a bit overtrained, too. If you are, let the taper bring your legs back and be aware that you may need to be realistic on race day. In the end, the weeks of solid training will pull you through. But, running a super-agressive race may lead to a big bonk after climbing a big hill somewhere around mile 18.

Some things to consider on the bright side for Boston:

1 - your first 4 miles are pretty steep elevation loss. You will have plenty of time to become warmed and groove into your pace, with almost a 4 mile jog start.

2 - the weather forcasted for that day, so far, is rain and 50 degrees, so many people will have a "not-so-great-day"

3- many runners feel the nerves and begin to pay more attention to a cough or slower pace when a big race is getting close. you are not alone in this.

4- a couple hundred girls yelling at Wellsley College.

5- Citgo Sign = relief

6- you are in Boston, not NYC. That alone is a plus!

One quick tip I have used is to add striders to the end of every easy run during your taper. 6-10 striders will help make you legs feel snappy and shake out some the sluggish feeling in your legs.

I (also running Boston) am having the problem with sleeping. Since my taper started on Saturday, I have not been able to sleep well. I think it is the extra energy in my body.

Anyone have a solution for this one?

RI runner:

50 degrees and rain is good for a marathon. Also, the forecast seems to be calling for showers, not rain. 50, overcast and showers is no excuse for a "not-so-great-day". We'll have to see what the wind is like though.

Liked the rest of your post though.

Also feeling crappy here... But with a cold. I had to take 3 full days off last week, so I can't tell if that counts for my taper or not. ;)

Anyway, I went out last night and tried to float a 6min pace 10miler like I did the week before. It hardly "floated". My quads felt like bricks and was blowing snot rockets every half mile. Anyway, I am just going to a get a lot of sleep and shuffle around for a few days (low miles and striders). I am sure that I will be fine if I just chill out and keep going over my race plan.

Don't focus on your taper paces. Remember if you felt great now you might have missed your peak. Better to peak on race day. And like others have said you won't know how your taper worked until you hit about mile 22. Assume all is well until then. Good luck!

BTW, 50s and showers sounds perfect to me.

Thanks for the words of wisdom. Did 3 x 1 mile at marathon effort today with easy 400m jog in between and just did not feel very good. Was having serious doubts about all my training, I guess I should give it a few days.

was your hardest week or one of the hardest weeks you had in the trying cycle the one before the taper? That could be why you feel bad the next week during the taper.

heyyo wrote:

was your hardest week or one of the hardest weeks you had in the trying cycle the one before the taper? That could be why you feel bad the next week during the taper.

Yes, three Sundays ago I hit a 2:30 long run; two Sundays ago I hit a 2 hour long run both of which in 80 mile weeks and the 2:30 long run was the week after a 1/2 marathon PR; and only this past Sunday did I drop it to 1:20 and 65 miles.

Alacrity wrote:

Advice on why I feel like I feel? Is it normal? It's funny every time I peak I forget how I felt in the past!

I know what you are saying. For me, it's hard to remember how I felt on particular workouts unless I'm actually doing them then I can remember what it was like in the past.

However, the one thing that I have a vivid memory of is that I always felt horrible during my marathon taper. Horrible. I hated cutting my mileage down and ultimately ended up running a bit more just out of sanity sake.

Now that I'm a coach, I'll give you the same advice I give my runners, "Stop worrying about how you feel." The reason you feel like **** is because you are overthinking about how you feel. You are thinking "Oh i'm only running 65 mpw so I should feel good". Bogus. You are still training.

You see this all the time in championship races. A lot of guys do horrible at conference. Why? because they think about how the feel. A 14:00 5k runner, goes through 3200 of a 5k in 9:20 and thinks "Oh my god, I don't feel that great." Well guess what a 9:20 2 mile isn't a joke even for someone who normally would go through in 9:00.

You're either in shape or not. You don't lose it in one week of training or in one race.

Be confident and stop thinking.

Just run.