Considering that I don’t follow any formal training plan, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that I don’t have a scripted out taper plan ready for Albany. Instead, I have the basic tenets of the taper in my head, and am loosely following them while still listening to my body.
From both reading literature and my own limited personal experience, I’ve come to believe that four weeks before the marathon should be the hardest week of training, followed by three weeks of a slight taper. I think it’s important not to go too light on the mileage (especially in the beginning of the taper) and definitely to keep some moderate to hard workouts in there. When I over-tapered, my legs got too relaxed and I wasn’t able to push late in the race when it started to hurt. In contrast, I ran really strong in Chicago without any taper at all. So, if I’m going to err, it will be on the side of too heavy because I think that’s a safer place to be.
Honestly, I’m happy that the taper is here. I’ve been pushing hard lately and my legs were starting to feel it. By Wednesday this week, my rolling 7 day total was 86 miles, my highest ever. Add a quick trip up the stairs of the Empire State Building in there and it’s not hard to imagine why many of my runs this week were less than stellar.
Tuesday night, a few hours after the ESBRU, I met up with Baker in Central Park for what was supposed to be an 11 mile run, but I had to bail early because of GI issues and general fatigue, only getting in 9.7. It wasn’t a huge difference in mileage, but having to quit a run early bummed me out. Wednesday, I ran down to the Queensboro, over it, and back for another 9.5 miles. It wasn’t necessarily a bad run, but it certainly wasn’t good. I was tired and not running fast at all.
I took an extra rest day Thursday (one of the biggest changes I made for the taper) but it didn’t help out as much as I’d hoped it would. I ran 11.4 from Brooklyn to Manhattan over the Williamsburg Bridge Friday morning, but it was another big struggle. I wrote in an email later that day, “Now that I’m done with it, I feel really good about my run this morning. As I’ve mentioned before, it makes me happy to know that I can power through those ones were nothing seems to be going right.”
My old running partner Sarah was back in town for the weekend, so we met up for a run in Central Park Saturday morning. She was already 8 miles into her run when we started and I was happy that she had the head start and wouldn’t be wanting to push the pace — I had struggled even to get 7:30s on my warmup heading down there. That run ended up at 13.7 miles, my longest of the week, but it was only 7:36/mile.
The bright spot of the week came later that day when I headed out for a 4 miler along the East River with Helen. My legs aren’t a big fan of two-a-days and so we started really slow, but then coming back we posted a couple quick miles, including a sub-7, into a strong headwind. That felt good.
Yesterday, Helen and I headed out to Queens over the Triboro then came back via the Queensboro for 10.3 miles. It wasn’t pretty. My stomach was giving me hell, my heel hurt, and I just didn’t have any oomph.
So, outside of the one short run, this week was pretty much all tough, slowish struggles. I got in 58.7 miles, which is about where I wanted to be, but I didn’t think they’d be this difficult to come by. Still, though, I don’t know if it’s a problem that they were so tough… I meant to push really hard last week, knowing that I’d have a couple easier weeks up ahead to recover. It seemed like a good idea at the time and still kinda does. Your thoughts?
my experience is so limited that i hardly feel qualified to comment :) what i will say though, from the experience that i do have, and from the outside looking in to your blog – is that the taper is maybe a bit of a metaphor?…for the race ahead? perhaps like the last bit of the 2nd third of a race (like miles 17-20, i think those are the worst). the bulk of the work behind you, grinding out the painful miles just before the home stretch comes into sight? …as for an informed/experienced opinion – maybe reach out to @speedysasquatch?? best best, dre
I never thought of it like that before, but I like the comparison.
I think you’ll bounce back during the rest of the taper for Albany. You said it pretty much — 86 miles including the ESBRU, so a big week.
When you’re having a week where your legs feel stuffed on every run, I’d say just keep running easy (by feel) until they start to come round. Also, I pretty much agree with not tapering too much, as you can lose aerobic condition. Increasing the intensity as the miles come off can avoid this, but you have to tread carefully there too.
Don’t taper too much. Plus, you are guaranteed to feel weird during the taper. You will likely have several more runs that just feel awful. These will make you worry about the marathon and how it will go. However, that’s what always happens during the taper – at least during my tapers. The last tempo run that I did before Phoenix, I gave myself an asthma attack 4 1/2 miles into a 5 mile tempo and couldn’t finish the run. I was only going about 7:05/mile. I averaged a little above that for the whole marathon.
That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. What do you think caused it? The stress of the upcoming race? Or was it something physical?
Sounds like cumulative fatigue, as Ewen says, from the mileage and the stairs so I wouldn’t worry about it, this is exactly what the taper is for. Get some life back into those hardworking legs of yours and you’ll rock Albany with a vengeance. What are you going for?
It depends on the conditions. If there’s no snow on the ground, I’m going to try my best to finally qualify for NYCM. That’s 2:55 which breaks down to 6:40/mile. That sounds scary, but I feel like I have to go for it if I’m having a good day.
You’ve been doing so great so consistently that I have every belief you’ll get it.
If you have 3 relatively soft weeks (and relatively is key) it ought to prepare you. i think the idea is that it gives the muscles time to heal the micro tears from running and to reduce intramuscular swelling caused by training. And to increase overall glycogen levels from reduced training. So you ought to know what works best for you.
Rest. Take some iron. You’ve had a hard week from the high mileage and your body needs some recovery.
Today’s run makes it look as though you all were right about the tired legs just being a symptom of the tough week… After my light weekend and a rest day yesterday, I managed 7.63 hilly miles at 6:59/mile pace this afternoon. (Sigh of relief.)