How to Taper for a Marathon

Tapering is one of the most difficult mental challenges we face as runners when targeting a big goal race.

We’ve put in weeks and months of hard training and sacrificed a lot to try and get ourselves in our best racing shape and yet everything could come crashing down in the final two to three weeks if we’re not careful.

Add in the fear of the reduced mileage and workouts ruining our fitness plus all the weird feelings, such as dead legs we commonly experience in the final two weeks and it’s no wonder the taper is a huge stress.

With goal spring half and full marathons right around the corner, I thought today would be a great time to take on some listener questions about the taper.

Not only might you have the same questions, but we’ll dig deep into the topics so you can really learn and understand the ins and outs of the taper.

Today, you’ll learn…

• How to reduce your mileage properly during the marathon so you hit the starting line fresh while not losing fitness.
• How to adjust your weekly mileage, workouts and long runs when tapering for a 5k or shorter race distance.
• How your diet might change when tapering for a marathon and common questions about weight gain, carbs, etc.
• How to avoid peaking too soon for your race
• How to taper off your strength training before a big race so you don’t lose all your strength gains, but still feel fresh come race day.
• What to do if you find yourself injured only a few weeks from your goal race

I know I picked up some great tidbits just from listening in on the coaches and I know you will too. 

If you have questions you’d like our coaches to answer on the podcast, you can head to runnersconnect.net/daily and submit them to us. 

You can send an audio recording or type in your questions. We’ll do our best to get your question featured on the next round-up show.

Enjoy today’s episode!

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