And 20 weeks later, we reach taper week

I agreed to write a law journal article on a topic that 99.9% of lawyers don't care about, and my deadline is Friday. Of course, I didn’t start working on it in April when I said yes. So here I sit in the office working evenings this week to pull this thing together. It’s a good thing it’s TAPER WEEK!

April and May were full of tough races and intense training. So, in addition to having to commit extra time to work, I welcomed taper week just for some physical relaxation!

As part of my elaborate efforts to avoid working on the law article, I’ve been reading articles on tapering. Most of the information I've found is geared toward elite-level runners. The suggested taper plans are almost harder than my hardest week of training. Not much out there on tapering for the hobbyist half marathoner. I gather that the basic idea is to assess the state of your body and what your training was like. And then you just have to trust your training. “The hay is in the barn,” as a runner friend of mine told me.

I was pretty low mileage, but my legs have accumulated fatigue from April and May. So for my taper, I decided that one week would be enough because I’ve never tapered for more than a week for any of my half marathons. And I'm planning on about 20 mile this week - half of my average weekly mileage over the last month. I’m keeping it to all easy miles and perhaps a couple of miles at race pace just for fun.

But trusting your training is the hardest part. I violated the-hay-is-in-the-barn principle of tapering on Saturday when I ran 16 miles for my final long run (the longest run of my entire 20 week training cycle, and probably the longest in the last 12 months). It was a mistake. My legs still have not quite regained their spring, and it’s almost Friday!

Speaking of almost Friday! . . . back to that law review article that no one but my editor cares about.

Two Little Runners

Kristen

And.... Cue obsessive weather checking, new phantom injuries...and a mystery solved!

So.... last week before I run New Jersey Marathon (Sunday, May 5). Taper week.

Most people describe the taper crazies as their legs popping out of their skin, wanting to run. This phenomenon sounds kind of nice. I have not experienced it. Instead, taper feels like my legs are still heavy, I gained 10 pounds from all the lovely carbs (not really, but they do make me feel a bit bloaty). It includes obsessively checking the weather, and always, always developing a new injury that WILL NEVER HEAL BY RACE DAY AND WILL RUIN EVERYTHING AND ALL THAT TRAINING WAS FOR NOTHING. Except it will probably be fine. And I am just a drama queen.

At least the last week of training that began poorly, ended with a confidence-boosting tempo run.

April 21-27, 2013
Sunday: 16 miles at 8:37 avg pace, felt like balls.
Monday: 40 mins easy elliptical
Tuesday: Attempted threshold workout (3x2miles at HM pace - roughly 6:55). Actual workout was 1x2 miles (7:12), 1x2 miles (7:25)... and I quit. Felt so slow and hard.
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 10-mile tempo run! Success! Started around 7:25s, finished last mile at 7:08. Avg pace was 7:20. 12 miles total.
Friday: very easy 4 miles
Saturday: 50 mins elliptical + core

Saturday I flew back to San Diego AGAIN for work and yay, met with Kristen for a delicious dinner of fish and sauvignon blanc. New Zealand SB, always.

I then flew up to Oakland, CA (for work again)... to the land of Roserunner!

I met her for dinner! At first I didn't realize this was a blog meetup... cos we had been emailing a little from time to time, and it didn't occur to me that it was a "thing". Then I realized how potentially awkward this stuff is, when my boss asked me how I "met" this friend.  I embarrassingly stammered that errrrmmmmmm, we hadn't actually "met" and we were friends via our blogs. So now he thinks I'm trawling for friend-dates on the interwebs. Awesome.

Anyway! Dinner was great, though we committed a massive blog fail for not getting any photos. Of each other, the food, or weird selfies in running outfits. But rest assured it was a great eve... though I felt like I talked her ears off about running, running blogs and basically a recounting of my entire life story. But she was SO nice, interesting, smart (like you'd expect) and encouraging!! My marathon-induced anxiety rapidly dissipated after our dinner...for 2-3 hours, at least.

One thing Margot mentioned that was totally true...Roserunner is not a 6"2' Amazonian warrior lady! Normal size! Apparently RR thought that I would be bigger too. But after pondering for a while, we have possibly solved the mystery. All race photos have our runners legs fully-extended in stride, poking out of tiny runner shorts. Arms generally in a flailing (me) or professional-looking arm-swing (Roserunner) but extended, nonetheless. SO bodies look bigger in those photos, than say, aforementioned selfies would. Mystery solved? Maybe... I'm going with it.

~ Penny

The Art and Science of Tapering

This is the first time I have made it to the end of a training cycle having fully completed my training plan (other cycles have been undisciplined toward the end) and having stayed injury (and accident) free! Horary! So now I am 10 days away from race day (Silver Strand Half Marathon) and feeling strong, fit, and healthy. Navigating uncharted waters, I think it is time to taper?!

There is surprisingly little information about tapering in most of my running reference books. On the blogosphere, I am seeing runners reporting “taper tantrums” from lack of running. But I’m not finding much information about how to taper, for how long, and why.

So I turned to the running Bible: Tim Noakes’ Lore of Running (4th ed. 2001) for . . .

The Science of Tapering

Tapering is the process of resting up before a major race. Runners discovered tapering by accident. History is replete with examples of runners being forced to rest due to sickness or injury in the weeks prior to their events and then having breakthrough performances.  The most famous, perhaps, was Carlos Lopes who won Olympic gold at the 1984 games in the marathon after an accident prevented him from training for 10 days prior to the race.  Another Olympic example is Joan Benoit.  She won the 1984 United States Olympic marathon trials only days after undergoing knee surgery. Benoit later said that she thinks her knee injury was the single most important factor that led to her victory:  it forced her to train less throughout the training cycle.  Noakes at 321-22.

So for the niggled/injured runners late in their fall training cycles, maybe your injury is a gift, and you'll have a breakthrough performance in your race. Stay positive!

There are also scientific studies to support the practice of tapering as having positive effects on race performance. But there have been no studies specific to half marathons or marathons. Noakes concludes that according to the few studies on tapering, a taper is most effective when “there is a rapid reduction in training volume . . . in the first few days of the taper and training during the taper is at high intensity, approximating 5-km race pace.” Id. at 321.

Noakes also believes from personal experience that the harder and/or longer your training cycle, the longer you’ll need to taper.  Id. at 621.  And further, the longer the race distance, the longer the taper.  Id. at 653.

Noakes’ book excerpts half marathon and marathon training plans written by many different experts.  Most half marathon plans include a 1 week taper. Most marathon plans include a 2 week taper. Ultras and ironman races, by comparison, may have up to a 4 week taper.

So that leaves us to figure out our tapers by feel . . .

The Art of Tapering

Peasant Woman Holding a Taper
by Jules Breton [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The goal is to find the sweet spot between giving your body enough rest to allow a full recovery of the muscles and avoiding a loss of fitness.

Right now I am feeling fit but tired. So I am less worried about losing fitness and more worried about getting enough rest. I think a slightly longer than the standard 1 week half marathon taper is in order.  

I am thinking of tapering along these lines: 

• Run no more than 15 miles during the taper period. But no running the last 3 days before the race. This means for my last week of training, I’ll cut my average weekly mileage over the last 7 weeks by 50% (I had been running roughly 30 miles per week).
• I am going to cut out leg weight workouts and plyo completely.
• I’ll keep up with core because those muscles are secondary in running and, for me, seem to recovery quickly after workouts.
• I’ll add another light yoga class next week to stay stretched out (and to give me something to do in place of running). 

Taper Plan 

1. Friday – normally scheduled rest day
2. Saturday – tempo run at race pace, no more than 5 miles
3. Sunday – 3 miles easy
4. Monday – yoga
5. Tuesday – mile repeats, no more than 4 miles
6. Wednesday – 3 miles easy, core
7. Thursday – yoga
8. Friday – rest
9. Saturday – rest
10. Sunday – race

Let the taper begin!

Any advice for a successful taper? What kind of taper has worked for you?

Kristen