Miles with Myles – Week of 9/27/2010 – The Taper
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a taper. It’s been a long, hard road over the past 3 months and I really felt it last week. I had to cut my endurance run short on Saturday as my left leg began giving out on me, so I only ended up making it about 19.5 miles. While I planned for 21, I made the decision to cut it short rather than shuffle my feet around for another 1.5 miles and risk injury. Sometimes it’s better to cut your losses and move on. For those of you not familiar with the term Taper, it simply means to begin reducing your weekly mileage and intensity, giving your beat up body some much needed R&R. Below is a great article on tapering which I’ve referenced over the past year several times:
http://marathontraining.com/marathon/m_taper.html
I don’t really follow the three week schedule that they provide, but I think the information in the article is very useful. However you want to do it, just make sure you rest, hydrate and eat healthy foods. Honestly, the taper is my favorite part about marathon training…enjoy!
Monday:
I took today off due to my lingering injuries, but I’d recommend doing 5-6 miles at an easy pace as well as an upper body workout focusing on biceps, triceps, chest and core.
Tuesday:
7 miles at marathon pace. Be sure to get a quality run in here since this will be our last “fast” run. Remember, the general rule of thumb is that it takes 10 days for our bodies to get any benefit from a workout. We’re about 12 days out at this point.
Wednesday:
Rest!
Thursday:
6 miles – negative splits. The final mile should be at marathon pace, but you should run your first mile at about a minute slower than your projected marathon pace speeding up 10 seconds per mile.
Friday:
30 minute easy run.
Saturday:
8 miles at a moderate pace. Don’t go too slow, but you also want to make sure you aren’t pushing too hard. Try to find a nice balance for this run and appreciate that you aren’t running 15+ miles!
Sunday:
Rest!
