kinetic diet

if you’re coming towards the end of yourmarathon training, it’s important that you get your taper spot-on, and put yourself inthe best physical condition, rested but ready, come race day! so you’ve done the hard work over the lastfew months. you’ve dragged yourself out of the door on those days where you just didn’tfeel like running, and nailed those key sessions. in these last few weeks before your marathon,the quality of your taper will make a huge difference to your marathon performance onthe big day. unless this is your first marathon, you’llalready know that the taper period can be a nerve wracking few weeks! all sorts of questionsand worries go through your head. i can’t

emphasise strongly enough; trust in your training,and don’t fall into any one of the traps i see runners falling for all the time... stick around to the end of the episode, asi’ll be sharing 5 of my favourite marathon taper tips to help you give yourself the bestchance of arriving on the startling in the best shape possible to run a personal besttime. before i share these marathon taper tips,i want to just quickly answer a handful of questions i’m often asked, about this partof your marathon training. marathon training is hard on your body. particularlyduring those big weeks, and long runs you put your body under a considerable amountof stress, both in terms of impact on the

joints, and energy systems. if training hasgone to plan, by the time you hit your taper, you’re just the right side of the fine linebetween training hard, and physical burn-out. that’s what it takes! it takes longer than you may think to recoverfully from long runs and big training weeks. after the longest long run of your marathontraining block, your legs should feel good-to-go again within a day or so, but don’t be fooled. in truth, your body can take 7-12 days tofully recover from a big training week, or exceptionally hard or long effort. so, it’s important that you’re properlyrested ahead of marathon day. putting yourself

in a position where you’re going to be bestperform. that said, too much rest can be a good thing!the trick to getting the taper period right is giving your body just the right stimulusto maintain your speed and spark in the legs, while also allowing proper recovery from thebig training weeks just past. no, it’s not as if you’re not runningduring the taper. in fact, done properly the taper should give you a break from runningthe volume you’ve been running in recent weeks, but maintain the intensity of yourrunning. think of the taper less as a threat to your running fitness, more an opportunityfor your body to recover, adapt, and put you in a position to make the most of all thehard work done to this point.

as with so many things in terms of training,people respond differently to varied lengths of taper. usually i’ll get a marathon runnertapering for three weeks before race day, with the taper obviously beginning immediatelyafter the last long run. some runners however, respond better to ashorter two week taper period. in all honesty, it’s largely a case of trial and error. ok, so this might seem like common sense,but people get it wrong all too often. don’t book your first ever deep sports massageduring your taper. you have no idea how your body will react! the same can be said for footwear and nutrition.at this point, your best bet is to stick with

what your body knows. you’ve got this farin your training, don’t sabotage your marathon drams by adding a new unknown into the mix. in the same vein, don’t add intense sessionswhere you’re stressing energy systems you haven’t trained during the marathon trainingblock. sometimes i see runners performing shorter, faster intervals as a way of reconcilingtheir concerns about the lack of running volume in these taper weeks. don’t do it! on the other side of that some coin, whileyour taper is all about allowing your body to recover from an intense training period,coming out of the taper ready to go, it’s important to keep your body stimulated byrunning regularly, and with a little intensity

thrown in to keep you sharp. if you’re doing a three week taper, thefirst week can still be 80-90% of your biggest week’s run volume. the long run at aroundabout 12-14 miles should be about right. week two can be roughly 70% of your peak runningvolume, with the long run at 10 miles. in the week ahead of the marathon i usually getpeople doing two or three easy 4-6 mile sessions, and a 2-3 mile tempo or fartlek session ofthe same distance, to keep the speed in the legs. pacing it the biggest skill to master, whenit comes to all kinds of running. use this taper period to practice running at your targetmarathon race pace. your long runs during

the programme have hopefully been done ata slower pace, this taper period is a good chance to dial-in what marathon pace shouldfeel like. this isn’t just specific to taper, but marathontraining in general. if the worst happens and you’re struck by injury or illness,you’ll have to re-organise your programme most likely, but don’t cut corners and playcatch-up by trying to add a confidence building 16+ mile run during your taper period. you’llbe doing more harm than good in many cases. there’s no two ways about it, even the mostperfectly executed marathon programme will require you to dig deep on the big day ifyou’re going to run to your potential, you know what they say; it doesn’t get easier,you just get faster!

use this taper period to practice visualisationtechniques, and get comfortable with the idea that you’re going to have to work hard toget that personal best. come up with contingency plans to deal with all the ‘what if’s’going on in your head. it’s important to have a plan! best of luck with your marathon taper, andof course go smash it on the big day. speak to you soon, bye now