The Science and Art of
Peaking and Tapering
for Your Best Marathon
From these late-in-the-game strategies,
a successful or failed marathon emerges.
By Roy Stevenson
A
s a keen junior distance runner in New Zealand, I’ll never forget a lesson
that I learned when I was forced to cut back my training. Due to a second
job that I had just taken, I wasn’t able to train “properly” for several months
because of my evening work. I just squeezed in a few miles of easy running every
day or two with the occasional longer run in the weekend.
I entered the Auckland Road Championships because my club needed me to
help make up our team. Much to my surprise I finished fourth, in front of a number
of runners whom I had no right beating—they had had my measure in several
previous races that season. Some of them even commented to me during the race,
“What are you doing up here?” A few years later I knocked 20 seconds off my
5,000 meters track time while recovering from a persistent heel injury that forced
me to cut back my running significantly, again running as fresh as a daisy.
I learned a vital lesson from these performances—the importance of allowing my body to rest before competition, something that we now call tapering or
peaking. Being forced to cut my running back permitted me to recover from my
chronically overtrained state. I was well rested and in my best form when I raced.
Most coaches will agree that two of their biggest problems with runners are getting them to recover from hard training efforts and to comply with a tapering or
peaking phase before big races.
The famous Finnish distance runner Lasse Viren, who won the 5,000 and
10,000 meters double at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, claims that it was a peaking technique taught to him by the late New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard that
enabled him to win two Olympic golds in consecutive Olympic Games. Viren
90 l MARATHON & BEYOND l Nov/Dec 2010
Tapering—some definitions
“A segment of time when training load is reduced before a competition
in an attempt to peak performance at a target time.” (Mujika, Goya, and
Padilla 2000)
“A time of reduced training volume and increased intensity that occurs
prior to a competition.” (McNeely and Sandler 2007)
says, “The question is not why I run this way, but why so many others cannot.”
That is his way of saying that most elite distance runners lack the confidence to
rest up for a week or two before major races.
The majority of elite and semiserious athletes in endurance sports are chronically
overtrained at any given time, and this is especially prevalent among marathoners
and ultrarunners because of their high volume of mileage. An interesting study
(1989) conducted by Harm Kuipers from the University of Limburg, in Maastricht,
the Netherlands, showed just how overtrained marathon runners are.
His team tracked the morphological changes in the cells of the leg muscles of
Dutch runners as they prepared for a marathon over a period of 18 months. After
gradually increasing their training mileage to 48 miles per week, with long runs
ranging up to 20 miles, the group ran a marathon.
A staggering 57 percent of the runners showed extensive muscle damage and
depleted glycogen stores before starting the marathon! What was just as interesting was that they had done a standard tapering program for the marathon, with
only 12 miles of running the week before. Even this taper had not allowed their
muscles to repair themselves. This study also showed that long-distance training
runs over 15K (nine miles) cause significant muscle damage, with little harm from
lesser distances. There are some implications from this study worth pondering.
1. A good percentage of marathoners on the start line follow no tapering
procedures at all. And if runners who taper still exhibit significant damage to their mitochondria and muscle fibers and have depleted glycogen
stores, what condition must “Joe Marathoner’s” muscle cells be in if he
hasn’t tapered at all?
2. In what condition are the muscles of higher-mileage runners who run over
48 miles per week, if they do not taper before their marathons?
3. In what state are the muscle cells of marathoners who persist in doing a
long run (20 miles or more) within a week or two before their big marathon?
Roy Stevenson l The Science and Art Of Peaking and Tapering l 91
We can only surmise that the leg muscles of these runners are in bad shape. We
know this from Kuipers’s study and from studies from Harvard Medical School
and Tufts University that looked at muscle biopsies done on marathoners after their
event. Electron-microscope photos of the damaged muscle cells are not pretty.
The consequences are appalling
Postmarathon biopsies consistently show ruptured muscle fibers, extensive inflammation within the muscle, and spillage of intracellular contents outside the muscle.
The damage list goes on: displacement of red and white blood cells, derangement
and discontinuity of contractile filaments, and hard wear and tear on the connective
tissues attaching to and surrounding the muscle. It takes your muscles and skeletal
system seven to 10 days, or longer, to recover and repair. Some biopsy research
shows lingering muscle fiber damage 30 days after a marathon. Additionally, your
stress hormones (cortisol, glucagon, and epinephrine) are dramatically elevated
after long-distance events.
Now, you can argue that there is obviously going to be a difference between
the muscle damage from a 20-mile training run done at submaximal pace and
racing the full monty (whether the marathon or ultra)—but not that much. If we
extrapolate the muscle damage from a 26-mile race down to a steady-pace 20mile training effort, we’ll still find residual muscle damage two to three weeks
after the 20-miler.
From this research, it’s clear that considerable tapering is required to allow
our muscle tissue to recover. And you can see how marathon runners who follow
a well-planned peaking and tapering program before their big marathon stand to
gain an immense advantage over their fellow competitors who fail to taper.
Why, then, don’t more marathoners and ultrarunners follow this practice?
The biggest reason they are reluctant to taper their training is because they think
they will lose their hard-earned endurance. Fortunately, studies prove that oxygen
uptake and other fitness parameters do not decrease in runners during a few weeks
of tapering (Houmard et al. 1990; Shepley et al. 1992; McConnell et al. 1993;
Houmard et al. 1994; Harber et al. 2004), so now we can put runners at ease and
tell them they won’t lose any aerobic fitness.
Furthermore, according to Dr. David Costill, former researcher and head of
the renowned exercise-science department at Ball State University, Indiana, long
periods of intense training without programmed recovery phases actually decrease
an athlete’s performance capacity.
You will also notice that the title of this article is “The Science and Art of
Peaking and Tapering for Your Best Marathon.” The large pool of research (well
over 50 papers) enables us to make some solid recommendations about efficient
tapering procedures for the marathon, but the devil is in the details. Although
92 l MARATHON & BEYOND l Nov/Dec 2010
Things about tapering that you’ve always
wanted to know
• How much does a well-conducted tapering program actually improve
our performance?
• What happens to our bodies when we taper?
• Does tapering have any psychological benefits?
• Does tapering have any health benefits?
• Is there a synergistic effect with tapering and carbohydrate loading?
• How long before a marathon (or ultra) should we start to taper?
• How much volume should we cut back during the taper?
• When should we do our last long (20-plus miles) training effort?
• Can we do any high-intensity running in our tapering phase?
• What tapering system is shown to be the most effective?
• How many tapers can we do before we start to lose fitness?
most studies show improved performance in the field or enhanced physiological
parameters in the lab, it’s still very much an individual thing—which is where
the “art” comes in. You will be interested to read what two world-renowned New
Zealand marathoners, Rod Dixon and Lorraine Moller, did for their tapering
phase. And for good measure, three of Seattle’s top marathoners and ultrarunners,
Greg Crowther, Uli Steidl, and Alysun Deckert, will tell us about their peaking
procedures.
In addition, there are plenty of take-home messages for you inserted throughout this article. They will answer questions about tapering that keen marathoners
have been asking for years.
Performance improvements from tapering
Exercise scientists often find that improvements in physiological parameters in the
lab may look impressive, but when measured against actual performance trials, the
results are disappointing. However, running studies that used races, outdoor time
trials, treadmill run time to exhaustion, and treadmill time trials to assess performance after tapering have proved gratifyingly successful.
Significant performance
.
improvements, despite slight or no increases in VO2max, have been found.
Roy Stevenson l The Science and Art Of Peaking and Tapering l 93
Study
Conclusions
Shepley et al. (1992) Runners who followed a seven-day taper increased their run
time to exhaustion by a whopping 6 percent to 22 percent.
This is heartening news for marathon runners, because the
26-mile event is all about maintaining your maximal race
pace for as long as you can.
Houmard et al. (1994) Runners following a seven-day taper improved their 5K
treadmill time trials by 2.8 percent.
Zarkadas et al. (1995) Triathletes who followed a 14-day tapering program
improved their 5K times from 1.2 percent to 6.3 percent,
certainly nothing to be sneezed at.
Harber et al. (2004)
Runners using a 28-day taper improved 1.1 percent over 8K
outdoors.
Coutts et al. (2007)
Triathletes following a 14-day taper improved their 3K times
by 3.9 percent.
How much could we expect to carve off our marathon times if we follow a
judicious tapering program? Studies done on runners show improvements ranging
from 1.1 percent to 6.3 percent. Conservative estimates are that we could expect
to improve our time from 1 percent to 3 percent (possibly higher if combined
with glycogen loading). Hopkins and Hewson (2001) concluded that correct tapering would improve marathon performance up to 3 percent. Thus, a three-hour
marathoner could expect to run from 1.8 minutes to 5.4 minutes faster—certainly
significant improvements!
What happens to our bodies when we taper?
A large number of studies have been done on the effects of tapering for endurance sports, primarily running, swimming, rowing, cycling, and the triathlon.
The evidence is conclusive—tapering improves performance and is well worth
doing. Peaking puts our musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory,
and nervous systems into optimal condition for racing. It significantly improves
performance times, running economy, muscular strength, blood profiles, lactate
tolerance and clearance, and important psychological parameters. Here is a brief
summary of what the research shows.
Running economy
Researchers looking at running economy (the oxygen cost of running at a given
submaximal intensity) after tapering found that runners require less oxygen and
94 l MARATHON & BEYOND l Nov/Dec 2010
Lorraine Moller on tapering
“I tried to do all the right things early on and became a lot more laissez
faire as I got into the latter stages of my career. Winning, I discovered,
was much more a feeling of confidence in myself than a combination of
precisely doing all the ‘right things.’”
“I started tapering about three weeks beforehand, and my mileage was
already tapered because the training was the final phase of the Lydiard
pyramid. Most of the long runs had been done, so I would be down from
90 to 100 miles per week to probably 70, then 60, and the last week I
did not bother to count but went entirely on how I felt. If I was racing,
my mileage may have been even less. If the training cycle had gone correctly, I was finally brought to a focus of quality over quantity.”
When asked whether she did any sharpening work, Lorraine said, “Yes,
some on the track, time trials or races, usually over 4K if one week before
or 10K two weeks before. It was all feel-good running, high intensity.
Before the Barcelona Olympics marathon, I ran 3  1,000 meters on
the track four or five days before with 600 recovery in 2:47 to 2:50. I
knew I was ready.”
• First, Boston Marathon 1984
• Second, Commonwealth Games Marathon 1986
• Third, Olympic Games Marathon 1996
• Three-time Avon Women’s Marathon winner
• Three-time Osaka Ladies Marathon winner
energy to cover a set distance at a set speed, making them much more economical. As a result, their energy substrates (glycogen, fats) are released more conservatively and last longer. Houmard et al. (1994) found a 7 percent decrease in
energy expenditure in 18 male and six female distance runners who followed a
seven-day tapering program.
Muscular strength increases with tapering
More good news—tapering studies on swimmers, runners, and cyclists commonly
show an increase in muscular strength and power following a precompetition taper
(Costill et al. 1985; Shepley et al. 1992; Houmard et al. 1994). We think that the
rested fast-twitch (Type IIa) muscle fibers respond to tapering more than slow-
96 l MARATHON & BEYOND l Nov/Dec 2010
twitch (Type I) fibers do, and they shorten faster after tapering. Translated, this
means that your “power” muscle fibers contract more quickly, so you generate
more power with each muscle contraction. Theoretically, then, you should cruise
at a lower percentage of your submaximal running speed. You should also be able
to recruit more fast-twitch motor units toward the end of a marathon when your
slow-twitch motor units are fatiguing.
Hematological changes
Important changes take place in our blood with tapering. Red blood cell volume increases in runners and triathletes. This means higher hemoglobin levels,
which further enhance our oxygen-carrying capacity (Mujika et al. 2000). Three
running studies showed a decline in the enzyme creatine kinase (CK). CK is an
enzymatic marker of training-induced muscle stress, and when its levels drop in
the bloodstream, it indicates that our muscle tissue is recovering well (Houmard
et al. 1990; Flynn et al. 1994; Child et al. 2000). Although these three running
studies did not result in improvements in performance, at least we know that
muscle repair is taking place.
Lactate tolerance and clearance
A few studies show that peak lactate tolerance is improved during maximal exercise
after tapering. Mujika et al. (2000) found that runners could tolerate 7.6 percent
more lactate while running at maximum speed, and several other researchers
found similar effects on swimmers, rowers, and cyclists. Lactate levels during
submaximal levels are not altered significantly by tapering.
Muscle-glycogen levels increase with tapering
Replenishment of muscle glycogen has been found to progressively increase during the taper. Neary et al. (1992) found a glycogen increase of 17 percent after a
four-day taper and 25 percent after an eight-day taper in cyclists. Several studies
using varying lengths of tapering periods and differing exercise intensity during
the taper reveal some interesting conclusions.
It turns out that continuing to do slower, aerobic jogging during the taper
hinders the storage of muscle glycogen. Surprisingly, interspersing some shorter,
higher-intensity bursts into the taper actually stimulates and enhances muscle
glycogen storage. Shepley et al. (1992) had runners do two different types of
taper. One group did a high-intensity, lower-duration taper, which resulted in a
15 percent increase in muscle-glycogen stores. This group improved their running
time to exhaustion on a treadmill by 22 percent. The second group, following a
low-intensity, moderate-duration taper, had no increase in glycogen stores and
only a 6 percent increase in running time to exhaustion. Other studies have found
Roy Stevenson l The Science and Art Of Peaking and Tapering l 97
Is there a synergistic effect between tapering and
carbohydrate loading?
Walker et al. (2000) found that six days of taper combined with a highcarbohydrate diet
. increased carbohydrate utilization during cycling at
80 percent of VO2max. Another research paper looked at the effects of
tapering combined with carbohydrate loading (with a diet of about 60
to 70 percent carbohydrates) for four days before an endurance event.
Glycogen stores in liver and muscle tissue almost doubled, resulting in
significant improvements in marathon performances, up to 15 minutes.
similar results. This has major implications for designing your tapering program
and will be dealt with in the following sections on volume and intensity.
Does tapering have any psychological benefits?
Peaking gives the runner a mental rest from hard, grinding workouts. Mental
preparation and attitude are almost as important as physical training for maximum performance. The fresher the athlete, the more he or she can concentrate
on race-pace judgment, self-motivation, strategy planning, psychological arousal,
and relaxation.
Some of the psychological changes that tapering induces are improved relaxation, decreased perception of effort where exercise seems easier (Martin and
Andersen 2000), decreased mood disturbance (Coutts et al. 2007), increased vigor,
and better sleep quality (Hague et al. 2003). The combined effect of these changes
is a psychologically well-prepared athlete ready for the rigors of competition.
Does tapering have any health benefits?
Limited research on the effects of tapering on the immune system shows slight
positive effects on immune-cell function, cytokines, and lymphocytes. At the
very least, the immune system is stabilized during tapering (Coutts et al. 2007).
Although little of clinical significance can be gleaned from this research, it is
safe to say that runners can expect to be healthier during their tapering phase
than during hard training.
How long before a marathon (or ultra) should we start to taper?
Given the evidence cited by Kuipers et al. previously, muscle damage is present
for two to four weeks after long-distance training and racing efforts from 20 miles
98 l MARATHON & BEYOND l Nov/Dec 2010
up to 26 miles. Therefore, a tapering period of two to three weeks to compensate
for this damage would seem reasonable. The consensus of the research also agrees
that two to three weeks is optimal for hard-training marathoners.
However, there are some variables to consider: the taper design will also depend
on the runner’s previous training volume and intensity. For example, overtrained
high-mileage runners (over 70 miles per week) may need to taper for four weeks
if they have been pushing hard for several weeks or months. Conversely, runners
on lower-mileage or lower-intensity programs need less time, perhaps only one
to two weeks for an effective taper.
Something else to bear in mind: several studies show tremendous individual
variation in response to tapering. This is where the “art” comes in. If you fatigue
easily, taking a long time to recover from high-mileage or high-intensity running,
you should consider a longer taper—that is, three to four weeks. McNeely and
Sandler (2007) present an interesting recommendation (see below)—that you
should taper according to the average number of training hours you do each week.
In light of the above, their recommendations seem quite reasonable.
How much volume should we cut back during the taper?
Most studies conclude that cutting volume by 50 percent to 70 percent yields the
best running performances (Houmard et al. 1990; Houmard et al. 1994; McConell
et al. 1993). Shepley et al. (1992) found better physiological and performance
results from a low-volume taper compared with a moderate-volume taper in runners. A meta-analysis of over 50 tapering studies concluded that optimal volume
reductions are between 41 percent and 60 percent (Bosquet et al. 2007). So if
you cut your volume by 50 percent, you’re on the right track. You will need to
cut back more if you’re a 100-miles-per-week runner—a 60 percent reduction
would work well here.
To accomplish a reduction of 50 percent to 60 percent in your tapering, start
three weeks out by dropping your mileage by 20 percent. In the second week of
the taper, drop mileage by another 20 percent, and in the final week before the
marathon, drop another 20 percent. Many seasoned marathoners simply cut one
or two training days from their program during these tapering weeks and reduce
the length of some of their other runs.
Training hours/week
Major taper, days
6–10
7
11–15
14
>15
21–30
100 l MARATHON & BEYOND l Nov/Dec 2010
Rod Dixon on tapering
“I normally had a two-week taper. It depended on the schedule and how
many weeks of aerobic base I had done with respect to the racing during
the last month. I didn’t do any racing hard over 13 miles, preferring to race
10 miles of hills than, say, a 13-mile ‘flat course.’ I emphasized quality over
quantity. I would also have done a 10K race and 1–2  5,000 meters on the
track at time-trial effort at seven-eighths of race pace. The difference here is
that I wouldn’t sprint the last 600 meters in my last month of preparation.
My tapering was very much in line with Lydiard principles.”
Dixon reduced his mileage by about half of his normal average in the final
weeks. “I focused on ‘floating’ runs and not too much above aerobic pace,
although every three days I’d run a three-quarters effort lactate-threshold
effort at marathon race pace, say 5:30 pace for eight miles.”
When asked whether he did any final sharpening work, Dixon said, “The
body, mind, and my instinct told me I was ‘freshening’ up, and the urge
to get out and train or race hard was always there. So I would set the
program at, say, 5  1000 meters at marathon pace (5:00), but at set
three, I would often walk off the track entirely based on feeling. You
just develop a sense of this, based on instinct.”
• First, New York Marathon 1983
When should we do our last long (20-plus miles) training effort?
From the study by Kuipers et al., we know that 20-plus milers do extensive damage
to the muscle tissue, requiring two to four weeks to rebuild. Longer runs also bear
a greater risk of causing injury. Therefore, the prudent runner will complete his or
her final 20-miler at least three weeks before race day and could justifiably do it
four weeks out. Also bearing in mind Kuipers’s observations that nine-mile runs
seem to be the point where we start accumulating muscle damage, there should
be no training efforts over eight miles in the final two weeks. The last thing you
need is muscles that are still healing when you toe the start line.
Can we do any high-intensity running in our tapering phase?
Here is where recent research has made a big impact on how we design our tapering schedules. Hickson et al. (1985) started the ball rolling when they found that
well-trained groups of runners and cyclists lost significant fitness when their training
Roy Stevenson l The Science and Art Of Peaking and Tapering l 101
intensity was reduced. A one-third reduction in training intensity
. resulted in a performance loss of 21 percent and an accompanying reduction in VO2max when cycling
to exhaustion. Even more telling was a two-thirds reduction in training. intensity,
causing a performance decline of 30 percent and an even larger loss in VO2max.
Conversely, it is evident that runners who maintain training intensity can hold
their fitness for very long periods of time (up to 10 weeks, according to some
studies). Faster running also improves your neuromuscular-system coordination
when running at faster speeds and sharpens your marathon pacing sense. So,
maintaining some high-intensity running during the tapering phase is needed to
prevent loss of fitness.
An interesting study by Shepley et al. (1992) compared the effects of a highintensity, low-volume taper to a low-intensity, moderate-volume taper and a restonly taper. Of these three groups, the high-intensity, low-volume taper procedure
(a series of 500-meter repeats) resulted in a huge (22 percent) increase in running
time to exhaustion compared with modest increases in running time to exhaustion
in the other two groups.
McNeely and Sandler (2007) claim that doing race-pace training a few days
before the big event gives the runner a feeling of strength, power, and confidence
and leaves him or her feeling energized. How can this information be applied to
tapering?
As you can imagine, it is very easy to overdo high-intensity training, as many
overzealous marathoners have found out to their detriment. The trick is to find
the right balance of higher-intensity running at the right pace to sharpen up for
the marathon without wrecking yourself. The runner must recover from these
high-intensity efforts within a day or two.
Extended, highly anaerobic workouts and all-out racing during the tapering
phase are counterproductive to your goal. How can we establish the volume of
high-intensity training for our final tapering weeks without overdoing it? Calculate approximately 10 percent of your standard weekly mileage—this should be a
good estimate of your high-intensity training volume. With this in mind, you can
now plan a higher-intensity workout every 48 to 72 hours during your tapering
phase. The most common interval distances are 400, 500, 800, 1,000, and 1,200
meters and one mile.
All that is needed between these high-intensity sessions is shorter, slower,
recovery running of two to six miles. And don’t forget to take a day off running
every now and then, as you feel.
What tapering system is shown to be the most effective?
A meta-analysis of tapering studies by Bosquet et al. (2007) found that progressively and gradually reducing training volume in steps yields the best results for
runners, compared with suddenly reducing the load by a large amount.
102 l MARATHON & BEYOND l Nov/Dec 2010
Sample Tapering Schedule for a 70-Miles-Per-Week Runner
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Week 1 10
6
18
10
20
70
8
0
Week 2
8
6
3  1,000 meters at marathon pace
(6 miles)
3 miles
at 3/4
effort
(marathon
pace)
(6 miles)
10
44
Week 3
2–3  1 5
mile at marathon pace
(6 miles)
3  800
5
0
meters at
marathon
pace
(5 miles)
3 miles at
3/4 effort
(marathon
pace)
(6 miles)
8
35
Week 4
2  1,000 4
meters at marathon pace
(4 miles)
8  400
4
0
2-mile
the
marathon
meters at
jog
10K pace
(4 miles)
6
0
Total
for week (miles)
18
(excluding
marathon)
With these guidelines in mind, let’s look at how Seattle’s top runners taper for
their marathon. Alysun Deckert, 44, is one of the area’s elite marathoners, with
three Olympic Marathon Trials under her belt and a best time of 2:38:01.
Her tapering begins three weeks out; she cuts back her mileage by about 25
percent from a usual weekly average of 70 miles to 60 miles. In the second week
out, she cuts back further to 45 to 50 miles, still including one fast marathon-pace
tempo run. In her final week, she logs 25 to 30 miles with only three to four days
of running and a couple of days off. She might do runs of eight, 10, and eight
miles in this week, with a run of three to four miles the day before the race to
loosen up and shake off any nerves.
Greg Crowther, with a best marathon of 2:22:32 and a PhD in physiology,
uses his research background to guide him in his tapering program. He starts three
weeks out, cutting back to a lighter than normal mileage. His last long run is three
weeks before race day—a 20- to 22-mile run with the first eight to 12 miles at
a comfortable pace followed by six to eight miles at his planned marathon race
pace and then the final two to four miles as a cool-down.
Roy Stevenson l The Science and Art Of Peaking and Tapering l 103
How many tapers can we do before we start to
lose fitness?
Tapering for peak performance seems to work only a few times per year. It
is recommended that the runner do a basic noncompetitive training session
of longer-distance running to recuperate from the effects of the marathon
and to rebuild his or her condition before peaking for the next race.
Two weeks out, he will still do two speed workouts, perhaps two to three
one-mile repeats, thus maintaining some high-quality training while continuing
with some longer runs (although still shorter than usual). In his final week, he
will take a day off running but still include a shorter-interval track session, such
as 3  800-meter repeats (or 600-meter repeats), plus 2.5 to three miles on the
track at marathon pace on another day.
These higher-intensity workouts are easy enough for him to recover from,
yet, they keep his neuromuscular system in tune for his anticipated race pace.
His short runs in the final week are easy 5-milers, with a short, slow jog the day
before the marathon.
Uli Steidl has been the number-one-ranked marathoner in Washington State
for the past decade with 13 sub-2:20 marathons and a best of 2:13:56, including
a 12th place at Boston in 2007, in 2:19:54.
Uli does a three-week taper and cuts his normal weekly mileage from 110–130
miles to 80–90 miles, three weeks out. Two weeks before a big marathon, he will
cut back further to 70 miles and then run only 40 miles the final week before the
marathon. Four to five days before the marathon, he will do three miles at his
anticipated marathon race pace or 10 x 400 meters at marathon race pace.
You can see that all five elite marathoners described in the article follow the
general guidelines outlined.
Other things to note about tapering
You will probably put on up to 3 to 4 pounds of weight during your taper. This
should not be of any concern, as it is glycogen and water. About 1 pound will be
glycogen packing into your muscles, and the remainder will be water.
Another characteristic side effect of tapering is that there will be times when
the runner feels fatigued and seems unable to extend him- or herself during training. This may be due simply to a change in the athlete’s psychological state or
from fluctuating energy supply. Note Rod Dixon’s comments (page 101) about
being prepared to walk off the track early if he felt like it.
104 l MARATHON & BEYOND l Nov/Dec 2010
Mistakes to avoid during your tapering phase
• Doing training runs or races longer than nine miles in the two weeks
leading up to the marathon.
• Doing high-volume, high-intensity interval-training workouts in the
final three weeks before the marathon.
What about your weight training and cross-training? Should you taper these
sessions, too? Cut these back significantly in the final two to three weeks before
your big marathon. Reduce the frequency of these workouts for 10 days and then
eliminate them in the final week.
One final and critical aspect of tapering needs to be considered. The results of
a well-planned tapering program can make the runner feel like the competition is
almost effortless. Exercise caution—this can result in a foolhardy early pace and
blow the benefits of your well-designed tapering program. Starting at a realistic pace
will ensure that you do not find yourself in an anaerobic state right from the start.
Peaking is designed to achieve a superior biological state where the runner
tapers his or her training for a period of 14 to 21 days. The goal is to achieve
good health, complete physical readiness, and a strong psychological state, all of
which will lead to maximum performance in the marathon.
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank Lorraine Moller, Rod Dixon, Greg Crowther, Uli
Steidl, and Alysun Deckert for explaining their experiences on tapering.
References
Bosquet, L., J. Montpetit, and D. Arvisais. 2007. Effects of tapering on performance: a
meta-analysis. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 39(8):1358-1365.
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