Marathon taper

[Doug E.]

I have been following Joe's training philiosophies for close to a year now. I have been concentrating on a Marathon training phase since July. A weekly schedule has been looking like this:

Mon: Recovery 6-8 miles
Tues: am Harder workout
pm Recovery 4-6
Wed: Steady run 8-9
Thurs: Steady run 8-9
Fri: am Harder workout
pm Recovery 4-6
Sat: Steady 9-12
Sun: Long 16-22

Cycle through harder workouts as follows:
Fartlek with 3/2, 4/3, 5/4 totaling 30 min. fast
Tempo w/ 20-40 min. @ 85-90% MHR
15-20-X-Minutes
2-3-X-5K
Long runs alternate between steady efforts, and E/MP/E/MP or E/MP runs
I should also add that I do a bi-weekly 12-15 mile progression run.

I have been trying to follow a 3 up/1 down pattern, and plan on doing a 30K race October 1st, as well as my last long run (22) on October 8th.
I am looking for advice as to how to treat the taper, as well as last workouts before Chicago on the 22nd.

[Joe Rubio]

Doug E,

Usually we do the following in a marathon taper:

1. Do the last real long run of max distance 5-6 weeks out. Do a 25-30k at MP 3-4 weeks out.

2. Keep the basic weekly structure consistent in terms of workouts, paces, recoveries, except 3 weeks out cut everything to approx 90% of high water mark from previous month. 2 weeks out cut everything to approx 80%, the week of cut everything to approx 60%.

3. 10-11 days before the marathon, do a marathon specific workout, so a longer tempo, or something like 3 at MP, 2 at temp, 1 at 10k, 800 at 5k w/ 800 jog.

4. Last harder workout 4-5 days out. Can be 400's or mile reps, but volume should be 60% of what you were doing last month.

5. Some light strides 3 days out, same for the day before help keep you loose.

Hope that helps. Let me know the questions swimming in your brain.

Joe

[Doug E.]

Thanks for the reply Joe.
I must be starting to get a decent understanding of your system, as what I was thinking about, is almost exactly what you have suggested. A little bit of fine tuning, and I should be good to go.

[Doug E.]

Joe:

I may be second guessing myself here, but....
For my final two weeks leading up to Chicago, the runs of note are:
10-10 Tempo w/ 40 min. @ 85-90% MHR
10-12 9 mile progression run
10-15 14 mile steady run
10-17 4-X-(5 min. fast w/ 4 min. recovery)
I am wondering if the 10-10 tempo run may be a bit too much for this point in the game. I did 20 on 10-8, and the legs were a little zapped for today's recovery. Would a run like that do more harm than good at this point?

Thanks....

[Joe Rubio]

Doug E.

Taper = 2 weeks out 80% of what you did last month at the most. If you were at a 12/12 tempo run as a normal workout, than yes, the workout planned today is fine. If today is the hardest workout of the year, no you generally don't want to do that. Do a marathon specific workout, but make it 80% of what you did last month10 days out. First thing though, get recovered from the long run. Do the marathon specific workout Thurs or Fri. Today, a workout like that 4 x 5 min on/ 4 off.

You look to be doing much too much work heading into this thing, particularly the final week. 4 x 5 min hard/4 min rec 3 days before a 42k race isn't what we do usually. 20 miles followed 2 days later by another hard 20 miler isn't what guys who aren't on drugs tend to do.

We'll do maybe some lighter 400's 4 days before or the 4 x 5 min guys, if they are at tempo effort, not hard.

Here's what our last 2 weeks looks like:

Long run: 80%
Mon: easy recovery day
Tues: 1k's at 10k
Wed: Mid week longer run at 80%
Thur: Easy 30 min
Fri: marathon specific tempo work at 80% of volume
Sat: easy
Sun: light progressive run of 10-12 followed by strides
Mon:" easy
Tues: 400's at 5k or 1k's at tempo
Wed: 60 or so easy
Thur: 30-40 + 4 x 300 at 10k efffort
Fri: 20-30 easy
Sat: 20-30 + strides

So lots of easier running at a set % down - the same basic workout framework, just less of it. Look, you're as fit as you are gonna get, the only thing you can do now is step on the starting line w/ a normal amount of glycogen in your system which is great to get you fit, not great to race a marathon, you need to save glycogen or if not, you will tank. You need to get fresh. The other mistake people make is to rest too much and they tank. Just do what you normally do, drop it down a bit, throw out the second half of the hard workouts that really stress the system and make the final 2-3 days B4 the race pretty light w/ strides to stay sharp. Now is NOT the time to kill yourself when the workouts get tough, that was last month.

Joe

[Doug E.]

Thanks for your response Joe.
I think that there's a bit of confusion in that the numbers at the far left are the dates of the intended workouts, not total mileage. I agree with you that 2 20-milers in 3 days is pretty dumb, and the bulk of my focus is on easy running/rest. I already decided that 40 min. @ tempo today was probably too much, so I only did 30 min. I am also considering cutting the 14-miler to 12, per your suggestion.