If you are racing a half marathon as tune-up race during a marathon training cycle, you will not taper as much. However, if you are aiming for peak performance and a half marathon PR, tapering will help you reach that goal.
Marathon Training Week 16 – Easing into the taper
Tapering for the half marathon is highly individualized. Yes, all runners should taper for a half marathon. However, that taper will look different based on fitness, training load, experience, and other variables. Athletes who need more recovery will likely prefer lower mileage during their tapers than runners who might detrain quickly. You may find that how you taper changes throughout your time as a runner. For example, during stressful periods of life, you may need a longer, sharper taper.
The exact duration of the taper depends on a variety of individual factors, including recovery rate, intensity of training, stress outside of running, and race goals. Some runners prefer a two-week taper before a half marathon; others thrive on a 10-day taper after their last hard workout.
Ideally, your peak hard workout before a half marathon is either a long run, a threshold run, or a combination of the two. Exeprienced runners may do a long run workout two weeks out from their race. For beginner half marathoners, you do want to do your longest long run two weeks out from race day.
Since you are training for a half marathon, your hard workouts will be within the threshold zone (moderately hard) during the peak weeks of training. You want to continue that same intensity in the first week of the taper, just at a slightly reduced volume. For example, if the peak workout was 40-45 min at half marathon effort, then a taper workout would be 20-25 min of threshold running split across intervals.
During this time, you want to taper off strength training as well. You can cut it out altogether if you wish or stick to lighter weights and fewer reps of what you normally do. This is not the time for challenging strength workouts with heavy weights and plyometrics. Generally, I recommend that runners remove strength training about 7-10 days before their half marathon.
Strength training should not be done in the days leading up to a half marathon. Mobility work and foam rolling can be done this week, but avoid any plyometrics, weight lifting, or other challenging strength workouts.
Since you are sharpening for peak performance, you want to include one race week workout about four or five days prior to your race. For a half marathon, this is ideally a short duration of running at goal pace, such as 2 x 6-8 minutes at half marathon effort (with 3 min rest in between).
What does a half marathon taper actually look like in real life? The below outline some sample scenarios. This is not a prescription of exactly what you should do. Your training, goals, fitness level, and recovery rate will all affect exactly how this week looks.
Want to know more about half marathon training? Check out these articles:How to Pace Your Fastest Half Marathon13 Ways You May Be Sabotaging Your Half MarathonHow to Run a Sub 1:45 Half MarathonHow to Set a Half Marathon Goal (Plus a Half Marathon Pace Chart)What to Eat Before a Half MarathonHow to Fuel During a Half MarathonHow to Recover After a Half Marathon
Hi! If you are normally running 45 miles per week, aim for roughly 50% (20-25 miles) NOT counting the mileage from the race. An easy way to do this is to cut each weekday run in half in terms of mileage. Good luck at your half marathon!
Tapering is a training microcycle that usually takes place the week before a key event, such as a half marathon or a 5k. Longer events like marathons or ultramarathons require longer tapers. Tapering for an event is one of the most complicated and mysterious aspects of athletic performance.
Intensity should not drastically decrease despite overall distance dropping. For example, if a training plan usually calls for two days of intensity per week, still perform those two days of intense training during the final week before the event.
Reduce the number of intervals in a session by 20% of what they were in the last hard week of training. Even though overall running distance decreases, intensity may actually increase relative to the amount of total distance.
Tapering and reducing training volumes does not mean you should just put your feet up and stop working out. The tricky part about tapering is not to lose the fitness and pace endurance you have built up. The best way to avoid this is by reducing your mileage and focusing on short and intense workout sessions.
In the last week, it is important to get one more hard workout in four or five days before the race. This is designed to give your muscles one last training stimulus and to prepare your body for the demands of the upcoming race.
In the week before a half marathon avoid strength training and unfamiliar exercises. Fatigued and/or sore muscles can quickly endanger performance. Of course, continue to do stretching and mobilization exercises if they have been a regular part of training.
One exercise that could be beneficial in the week before a half marathon is a meditation exercise. Often, athletes develop performance anxiety due to the upcoming event and the abundance of energy (if they are tapering correctly). Meditation can help the mind prepare for the demands ahead of it.
Never change any equipment the week before a key race! This ranges from running shoes to sports nutrition and diet. New running shoes can cause an injury that robs one of even starting a half marathon. Sports nutrition can lead to cramps or GI issues that ruin a race.
Having an extra drink or two might feel good and promote relaxation; however, it can also lead to poor sleep and dehydration. If maximal performance is on the line, skip the nightcap in the week before a half marathon.
Training for an event sometimes means putting other life factors aside for a time. Weeding the garden, helping kids with homework, cooking dinner or finishing a big project at work all take energy. It can be tempting to finally tackle those life factors that have been put off during training since tapering means less time spent training.
The marathon taper is the last two or three weeks of marathon training. Your mileage decreases as you give your body the chance to replenish depleted muscles and store energy for the challenge to come.
A marathon taper is a reduced training load in the weeks leading up to race day. The purpose is to allow your body to recover from high-volume and high-intensity training to help you perform better on race day.
Up until now, research into marathon tapers had focused on serious and elite runners. This research delved into the Strava profiles of 158,000 recreational marathoners and found that those who followed a minimal, relaxed taper ran about 5:30 slower than similar runners who used a strict 3-week taper.
Although most of the runners (about 90 percent) did a 2-to-3-week taper, many of them were not disciplined in their approach (about 70 percent). Those who did not follow a strict taper had poorer relative performance than those who did.
A switch from a relaxed 2-week taper to a strict 2-week taper is associated with an improvement for men from 1.29 percent (relaxed) to 2.14 percent (strict) and a corresponding improvement for women from 2.19 percent to 3.12 percent.
A strict taper means a marathoner adheres to a strict reduction in mileage that increases as the runner approaches race day. A relaxed taper is not consistent in its reduction of mileage.
As noted, a strict 2-week marathon taper was associated with an improvement for men from 1.29 per cent to 2.14 per cent and for women an improvement from 2.19 per cent to 3.12 per cent.
For some people, a 2-week taper is best. In some cases, a 4-week taper or a 1-week taper may be more optimal. For example, former pro runner Neely Gracey only tapered for one week to qualify for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon.
Selecting the right marathon training plan to go 26.2. miles is crucial: select the wrong marathon training plan, or follow it the wrong way, and you could never reach the finish line, or worse get injured and not be able to run!
The running schedule should fit with your life. If your training plan has you running 6 days a week and you know your body can only do 5, or you only have time for 4 runs per week, then you will need to find a different schedule.
If you miss several training runs, you will need to scale your running and potentially change your goal race. If you have missed several days to a week of running, it is not advised to jump right back into the plan. You will need to reduce your mileage and work back up to get back on schedule.
Most marathon training plans will include a long run of at least 18 miles. The length of your longest run, which is 2-4 weeks out from the race, will depend greatly on what your estimated marathon finish time is.
You should run at least 25 miles a week to train for a marathon. If you plan to finish in a faster time, of 4 hours or less, you should be running closer to 40-50 miles a week to train for a marathon.
Thus, you need to recover as hard as you run. Be sure to take your off days, get plenty of sleep, warm-up and cool-down, and eat well when training for a marathon. Otherwise, you guessed it, you may get hurt!
A weekly structure is important for a half marathon training plan. Good race training schedules have between four and five training sessions per week. Nevertheless, building your plan around what you can realistically handle from time and physical capability is extremely important.
One of the most effective half marathon training workouts is the inclusion of speed or tempo runs into your sessions. Speed runs are shorter runs that push your pace to a manageable but elevated limit. Speed sessions should last for about one-third of your longest distance runs. 2ff7e9595c
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