LetsRun taper me! (marathon in three weeks)

(Bumping this)

Personally don't think you need such a big taper. 17-18 14 days out. 13-14 7 days out.

55 miles in second to last week.

45 miles in last week.

25 miles in 4 runs during week of marathon.

If you're fit a long taper just makes you stale.

Nothing wrong with cross training a bit either, or running easier / slower, and not going down as much mileage but just running for time

Taper nonsense wrote:

Personally don't think you need such a big taper. 17-18 14 days out. 13-14 7 days out.

55 miles in second to last week.

45 miles in last week.

25 miles in 4 runs during week of marathon.

If you're fit a long taper just makes you stale.

Thanks. I might actually keep the miles "up" this week, since I know I'm not exactly doing high mileage even at my max. It shouldn't be much to rest and round into race-readiness with just two weeks.

But those last weeks (55/45/25) are almost exactly what I said (50/40/25).

Two weeks to go as of today. I'm about to do 22 miles, with the last 10 at marathon pace. Hopefully it's no problem to bounce back from that.

I took the advice not to drop mileage so much in the third last week, and I'll have 54 in this week including today's long run and a mid-week five-mile tempo at 6:05 pace.

The next two weeks will be 40 miles and 25 miles each, with some marathon pace mile repeats mid-week this week and a ten-miler with a week to go, then just jogging and strides until the race.

Taper tips and key workouts are welcome!

You went from a planned 13 with 6 @ MP to 22 w/ 10 @ MP??? Phew, big, big difference. If I was to choose between the two, I'd pick the former. No science consensus on tapering yet, but most feel, as you've read I'm sure, to keep intensity the same, # of runs per week the same, but a decrease in volume with a sharp decrease as you get close (i.e.. not a linear decrease in vol. but exponential - not unlike what you had planned) The boys I'm coaching did a 22 last weekend 3 weeks out (mostly all easy miles), then a 14 yesterday with 6 @ MP and 2 @ 1/2 pace 2 weeks out with a 10 miler planned 1 week out with maybe 4 or 5 @ MP. Let us know how that 22 miler went & after your marathon (NY?) in hindsight would you have done such a taxing run 2 weeks out?

Definitely true! After the advice from the guy above, some chats with training partners, and looking at the easy recovery I had from 18 miles at pace a few weeks ago, I decided I didn't need to chop the long run at two weeks. I didn't do 22 with 10 MP in the end, though, just 19 with 7. Especially for an amateur like myself, the dilemma is always there whether a workout 14 days out will help or hinder, and I decided 22/10 was just too much.

Thanks for a really good post. Good ideas. What I'll probably do is...

- cut easy run mileage as I'd planned and you suggest, especially in the final week

- but still hit a short mid-week marathon pace workout this (second-last) week (4-5x1 mile, just to feel good at pace), and 10 with 5 at pace next weekend (one week out)

- 3-4 easy jogs of 5-6 miles the final week, with some pickups and a couple of pace+ 400s just to keep snappy.

- massive PR in the race ;)

Hopefully having today's long run in my legs/head won't come back to haunt me. I will come back and let you know.

Sounds like you 'split the difference' with that 19 miler, smart. Other than us 'only' doing 14 yesterday , our plans sound almost identical over these last 2 weeks - hope you have good weather.

I guess OP didn't have a good marathon after changing his whole taper based on one moranic comment.