Pfitzinger Pete - Advanced Marathoning

How much you reduce your overall mileage depends on your current training volume, past experience (know thyself), and overall health. In general, older runners tend to require slightly more time to taper than younger runners. Our guidelines for cutting back your mileage, based on research, discussions with elite marathoners and coaches, and personal experience, are as follows:

• Third week premarathon: Reduce mileage by 20 to 25 percent.

• Second week premarathon: Reduce mileage by 40 percent.

• Marathon week (6 days before race): Reduce mileage by 60 percent.

For example, a marathoner whose training peaks at 70 miles (113 km) per week would reduce her mileage by 20 to 25 percent (to 52 to 56 mi; 84 to 90 km) in the third week before the race, by 40 percent (to 42 mi; 68 km) the following week, and by 60 percent (to 28 mi; 45 km) during race week. For race week, the 60 percent mileage reduction is for the 6 days leading up to the marathon.

Three weeks before your marathon is arguably the most important time for a successful taper. This is the week that many marathoners do too much because the marathon still seems a long way off. If you work too hard during this week, however, you may find yourself feeling flat with 2 weeks to go and struggling to rest up as quickly as possible for the race. It’s much better physiologically and psychologically to allow your body to start to freshen up during this week. This will put you in a much more relaxed state of mind, feeling that your marathon preparation is on track rather than stressing that all of your efforts are going to be wasted.

Marathoners tend to progressively decrease their training efforts during their marathon taper. That method presents two problems. First, by steadily decreasing training effort over the 3 weeks, they risk a small loss in fitness (adaptations to training are lost at about the same rate that they are gained) before the marathon.

Around three weeks before your marathon is a good time to start your taper, decreasing the intensity and amount of your training.

The larger concern, however, is psychological. The steady-reduction approach doesn’t provide any psychological reinforcement. Marathoners generally need reminders that they’re still fit, or their confidence may become shaky. The more-effective approach to tapering is to intersperse harder efforts within an overall trend of recovery. Figure 5.1 shows a 3-week marathon taper in which harder efforts are included every few days. This type of taper will leave you fit, rested, and confident for the marathon.

Leading up to the marathon, it is paramount to believe in your training program by adjusting your taper to fit your individual needs. Keep a record of your taper leading up to each of your marathons and how you felt and performed in those races. Over time, you’ll be able to identify patterns that will allow you to fine-tune your taper and gain confidence that your taper has given you the maximal edge in performance. For example, many runners prefer a day off quite soon before the marathon. If you’ve found that works for you, we recommend taking that complete rest day 2 or 3 days before the marathon. It’s almost always best to do a light jog the day before the marathon – you’ll feel better on race day, you’ll have a chance to get a last check on any tight muscles, and perhaps most important, you’ll do something other than stare at the walls all day fretting about your race.

Based on the optimal tapering criteria we’ve just discussed, here’s a sample tapering schedule for a marathon (table 5.1). This tapering program is taken from the 18-week training schedule in chapter 9 of this book. By following this schedule, your mileage would have peaked at 70 per week (113 km), and you would have run your last 20-miler (32 km) on Sunday before the start of the taper. Let’s go through this schedule day by day to see the rationale for each day’s training.

Week 1 starts with 2 recovery days to recover from the long run on Sunday. The second day includes eight repetitions of 100-meter strideouts to improve your leg turnover. Wednesday’s workout is a 12-miler (19 km) to provide a mild endurance stimulus. Thursday and Friday are recovery days, leaving you well rested for Saturday, when you run your last tune-up race before the marathon. The 8K to 10K tune-up race provides a boost to your fitness that will make marathon pace feel relatively easy, yet it is short enough that recovery will occur quickly. Sunday is a 17-miler (27 km) to again provide a moderate endurance stimulus to help maintain the adaptations, such as increased glycogen storage and blood volume, from your previous long runs.

Week 2 starts with 3 recovery days, with Tuesday including a few strideouts to enhance your leg turnover. Thursday calls for your last workout at close to O 2max pace. This is done 10 days before the marathon to allow time for recovery and supercompensation. Friday and Saturday are recovery days, with Saturday again including a few strideouts to enhance your leg turnover. The week ends with a 13-miler (21 km) on Sunday, once again providing the body with a reminder to maintain the adaptations built up over many weeks of long runs.

Marathon week is all easy recovery with the exception of Wednesday. Wednesday is a dress rehearsal for the marathon. Wear the shoes, socks, shorts, and so on that you’ll wear in the marathon. This is your last chance to check that everything is right for the race. After an easy 3 miles (5 km), run 2 miles (3 km) at marathon race pace, then 2 more miles easy. You should feel reasonably fresh but will probably not yet feel fully rested. If you have any tight muscles, there’s still time to get a massage, stretch, or see a physical therapist to get your legs ready for race day.

By tapering in this way, you’ll reach the marathon start line as prepared as possible. Then all that remains is the little matter of covering 26.2 miles (42.2 km) as fast as you can. What pacing and nutrition strategies to use during the marathon to run your best is the focus of the next chapter.

In chapter 2, we discuss the importance of carbohydrate loading for the marathon. It’s vitally important that your muscles and liver be optimally stocked with glycogen when you reach the start of the race. Of similar importance is arriving at the starting line fully hydrated. See chapter 2 for in-depth information on these topics.

When you start cutting back your mileage, it can be tempting to increase whatever nonrunning training you do. For the most part, try to resist that urge. The various forms of supplementary training we looked at in the preceding chapter have the same general purpose as your running training – to get you to the marathon start line in optimum fitness for racing 26.2 miles (42.2 km). Approach your core, resistance, flexibility, and cross-training as you do your running when the marathon nears. That is, realize that the main work is done, and your goal now shifts to maintaining the gains you made while allowing your body to rest up for race day.