I registered for a marathon early to get my sister to commit to doing one. After fighting some injuries, I finally started running at the beginning of March and really training in April. The marathon is in a week and a half (mid May). I am planning to take it easy and run about 20 min slower than other marathons I have run. With so little training I am not sure my body would even react to a typical taper. Any suggestions for the next 1.5 weeks?
Probably will not get a PR on this small amount of training.
Drastic taper last 5 or 6 days "should" help a lot.
Good luck. Post your results.
Agree with the warning. Ran Boston on 2.5 months after a bunch of months with injuries. Started falling apart around mile 11. Needed to go even easier. Worst 15 miles of my life. Was doing some quality workouts prior, but when the base is gone, the marathon is unforgiving. Good luck.
By "take it easy" I mean mentally. I am not going to beat myself up over the time. I fully expect this to be the most painful to date.
To me, it depends on what your goal time is. If you're going to be running a 4 hour marathon, I wouldn't bother with a taper at all. If you're running 2:30, then I would do a short one-week taper at about half the mileage you were doing, with a short, fast but relaxed tempo run around mid-week. Then take a day or two off, but make sure to run an easy 30 minutes or so the day before with some strides.