Tapering for your spring marathon: insights from coach-researcher Simon de Waal

Simon de Waal, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Sciences at University of Gloucestershire, has developed four principles, based on his own research and experiences as a long-distance runner and coach, to follow in the closing stages of preparing for a marathon:

You’ve done the hard yards, months of training through the bleakest of late winter/early spring, and your goal marathon is now only two weeks away.

Your body is sore and your mind fatigued, but you can rest comfortably knowing you’ve done all you can and with your taper to look forward to. The fabled taper, equal in both notoriety and mysticism, what exactly is it? Is it truly possible to get it right? Is it nothing more than a fool’s errand to try and perfect it?

Today we break down the complexity of the taper and provide some how-to-guide-type information based on best practice to help you navigate this final part of your marathon preparation.

Training has two overarching aftereffects namely, fatigue (the immediate inflammation, soreness, and stress response to a training session), and fitness (the long-term adaptations to multiple, sequenced, training sessions).

If you’ve had an effective training block then you’re likely both very fatigued and very fit right now – which is great, of course, but won’t guarantee you have the best marathon you’re capable of.

To do this, you need to strike the optimal balance between fatigue and fitness – we call this preparedness. Enter the taper – a useful tool which (when done right), can maximise preparedness for your marathon by maintaining fitness while systematically removing residual fatigue from your body.

Sounds easy right? In reality the taper is infamous for good reason, largely due to its difficulty to get right. However, I’ve developed the following principles to help you along your way.

Principle number one: The length of your taper depends on the length and intensity of your training block. If you’ve had a long, consistent block, with lots of good-quality sessions thrown in you might want to think about a longer taper.

If your training block has been short, inconsistent, or without much high intensity work then you should shorten your taper. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this but general guidelines would be one to three weeks, with two weeks a happy middle ground for most runners.

Ultimately your goal should be to rid your body of that residual fatigue, so use your current level of tiredness as your deciding factor here. And don’t worry, you won’t lose any fitness with a good taper, regardless of the duration.

Principle number two: Your training volume should reduce by approximately 40% to 60% from your peak week mileage during your course of your taper. The numbers here are ultimately a guide, and you should use your fatigue levels as the deciding factor.

Practically, evidence suggests it’s better to reduce the volume of each run (distance/duration) rather than the number of runs per week. I would suggest, however, that you might want to use a combination of these measures, depending on your schedule and how your body is rejuvenating (or not rejuvenating).

An important note here is that percentage volume reduction guides do not include the race day themselves. For example, someone cutting volume from a 100km peak week three weeks out from their marathon might reduce their volume to 60km to 75km in the first taper week, and 30km to 50km in the week of the marathon, excluding the marathon itself.

Principle number three: Maintain training block intensity where possible. The taper does not give you an excuse to stop running fast. In fact, evidence from elite British marathon runners suggest that peak interval training intensity during the taper can even exceed goal marathon pace.

My suggestion would be to try and include some marathon intensity work during your taper but ensure that your repetition distances/times are reduced in line with the overall 40% to 60% drop in training volume goal.

Principle number four: Don’t forget the carbs! One consideration during the taper period is that your metabolic rate will change in line with the reduction in training volume.

Best practise is to match your energy intake with diminishing expenditure during this period, but you should consider meeting those demands with a carbohydrate rich diet. Remember, though, this is general guidance only and is not individual medical or nutrition advice. Adapt carbohydrate intake to your own health needs, allergies/intolerances, and experience, and seek professional advice if unsure.

In the 36 hours to 48 hours prior to the marathon itself you should consider carbo loading to maximise muscle glycogen concentration. This will give you a boost on race day and help delay that dreaded feeling of hitting the wall.

If you follow these four principles and use your body’s response as your compass for decision making surrounding how long to taper, how much volume to reduce, how much intensity to include and how many carbohydrates to eat, then you could stand to improve your marathon performance by approximately 2% to 3%.

I started this piece by stating that the hard yards had been done – and ultimately these will determine how well you do during you Spring marathon, but who doesn’t want an extra few percentage points improvement on their marathon time?

Who knows, it could be the difference between making your goal time and not. Best of luck out there!

Main image: A large group of runners in a marathon (credit: Pexels)