PROPER TAPERING. I’ve been getting some conflicting advice on tapering properly for a marathon. Some people are telling me that I should just gradually cut back my running activity over the final two weeks leading into my marathon until I’m doing almost nothing the final several days. Other people say I should cut back on volume but should keep up the quality of the workouts, especially speed workouts, so that my legs will remember how to run fast on race day. I’m 39, have been running for six years, marathons for the past three years, usually doing one spring and one fall marathon. My PR is 3:21.

—Jeff Lutz
via e-mail

MY OPINION is that you definitely need to gradually back your mileage down for the last two weeks before your race. That way your legs will feel fresh on race day. Getting massaged and eating healthy with increased carbs are also very important for a good performance.

Also, as you gradually decrease the mileage, you still can do some short bursts of speed on the very-low-mileage days.

Others may think differently, but the year I won the Boston Marathon I had a terrific base but had to cut out running altogether the last two weeks because of an injury—and I had my best performance ever.

Gayle Barron,
1978 Boston Marathon winner,
coaches Team Spirit in Atlanta.

EVERYONE HAS an opinion on how and when to taper for a marathon. I always did my last long run (22 to 24 miles) 12 days before the marathon.

After that I would do a slow taper until a week to go, and then I would cut my miles in half the last week before the race. I would do my last hard speed workout (a fartlek-style workout) eight days before the race. Then every other day after that until two days before the race, I would do some pickups or strideouts just to keep my leg turnover fresh.

I would not run them all out but under control. The day before the race I would jog 20 to 30 minutes easy, and then I was ready to run the marathon! Remember, it’s better to do less than more if you have to pick which side to err on. Have a great race!

Dick Beardsley
remains the fourth-fastest
American marathoner of all time.

I THINK you should cut back on both volume and quality of workouts in the two weeks before a marathon but don’t neglect either aspect of your training during this time.

The general rule of dropping volume by 40 percent two weeks out and 60 percent (excluding the race itself) seems to be a nice guideline to follow.

As for intensity of workouts, cut back on the number of repeats and/or the distance of your threshold runs. For example, two weeks out you may want to do a 4-mile tempo run if you have been regularly doing 5- to 10-mile tempo runs in previous weeks.

The week of the marathon you may want to cut out the tempo altogether and replace it with quick, relaxed 400-meter repeats. If you do mile repeats, you may want to do 3 × 1 mile two weeks out if you’ve been doing four or more in previous weeks. Don’t do any the week of the race; instead, do 6 × 400 meters. Never neglect doing strides after your runs through the entire training cycle.

I hope this helps.

Mark Conover
won the U.S. Olympic
Marathon Trials in 1988.

THERE’S NO doubt that tapering works. Most studies have found improvements in performance of between 3 percent and 5 percent from tapering. A 3-percent improvement on your 3:21 PR would mean running 3:15; a 5-percent improvement would get you a 3:11. That ain’t chump change!

The trick, as you indicate, is balancing rest and work so that you can make use of the fitness you’ve built the last several months but not lose any of that fitness soon before the race. The way to do that is to increasingly reduce your mileage in the three weeks before your marathon while maintaining the intensity of your training. (This assumes, of course, that you’ve been doing workouts beyond simply accumulating mileage during your build-up. If you’ve mostly just put in the miles, then two weeks before your marathon isn’t the time to become a track workout devotee. Simply follow the mileage-reduction guidelines below.)

For the week that starts three weeks before your marathon, run 20 percent to 25 percent less than in the peak week of your preparation. The next week, reduce your peak mileage by 40 percent. And in the six days before your marathon, cut back from your peak by 60 percent. For example, let’s say your highest week was 70 miles. In the first week of your three-week taper, then, you would run somewhere around 55 miles. The following week, you would do 40–45 miles. And in the six days before your marathon, you would do about 30 miles.

Of what should those weeks consist? It’s not unusual to end the first week of your taper with a race of 8K–10K, with a long-but-not-too-long run (say, 17 miles) the next day (two weeks before the marathon.) The rest of the week would be mostly easy running—it’s likely that the week started right after the longest long run of your build-up—with a few pick-ups to maintain turnover on one or two days.

The week that starts two weeks before your marathon would then begin with a few easy days to ensure you’re recovered from the race/long run combo of the preceding weekend. On, say, the Thursday of that week, you would do your last hard track workout, such as 3 × 1 mile at 5K race pace. This should be a challenging but not all-out workout. You would finish the week with a medium-long run, such as a 13-miler. Again, if you feel good, a few pick-ups at the end of one or two easy runs will help remind yourself that you know how to run fast.

The final week should be short, easy runs, with the exception of a day early in the week in which you run the middle few miles at your goal race pace.

Scott Douglas
is the co-author of Advanced Marathoning and a former
editor of Running Times.

SOUNDS LIKE you received some rather good advice from “other people.” My finding on tapering has been that it can vary according to where you are in your marathoning. By that I mean that a casual marathoner (That’s quite the oxymoron, huh?) would want to taper by gradually reducing both volume and intensity over the two weeks leading up to the marathon.

However, for a more serious marathoner, the volume should gradually decrease but the intensity should stay up to keep the athlete’s body ready to race at a high level. By that I mean that the weekly track workout should continue, but instead of running 8 hard repeat miles, cut it to 4 two weeks out, and to 2 in the final week.

A good rule of thumb is to cut your volume in half two weeks out, and then cut that in half again for the final week. Put another way, three weeks out would be your maximum week for volume, that is, 100 percent; two weeks out it would decrease to 50 percent; and the final week it would be 25 percent. This allows for the body to rest up while keeping its high level of training.

Rich Benyo
is co-author (with Joe Henderson)
of Running Encyclopedia and
is the editor of this magazine.

Here are just some of the stories we’re working on for our next issue:

• The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Turns 25 by Hal Higdon
• Peakbusters: A Unique Chapter in Women’s Running by Theresa Daus-Weber
• New York City Marathon 2001: Horror and Healing by Senator Roy Herron
• Final Installment of “Running in Literature” by Roger Robinson
• Race Profile: Kiawah Island Marathon

Back Issues of M&B

Back issues of M&B are available. They are $5.00 each, plus shipping.

U.S. shipping: $2 for 1 issue; $4 for 2-6 issues; $6 for 7-12 issues; $9 for 13-18 issues; $12 for 19+ issues.

Foreign/Canada shipping: $5 for 1-2 issues; $10 for 3-6 issues; $15 for 7-11 issues; $24 for 12-18 issues; $30 for $19+ issues.

Consult our Web site for a complete table of contents of every issue: www.marathonandbeyond.com. To order, phone: 217/359-9345 (toll-free 877/972-4230); fax: 217/359-4731; or order via our secure Web Site.

Take Advantage of the M&B Referral Program

Many of you have been extremely enthusiastic about telling your running friends about Marathon & Beyond. In appreciation, we have a policy of adding an issue to your subscription when a friend subscribes to M&B because you turned him or her on to the magazine. Have your friend give us your name when they subscribe, and we’ll add another issue to your current subscription. Some of our subscribers may never need to renew again!