Pace during taper?
chriscm70
Posts: 76 Member
It’s less than 2 weeks until my first full marathon. I’m nervous and excited!
I’ve been following Hal Higdon Novice 1, faithfully, except for missing one or two short runs somewhere in the middle when I had a medical thing going on.
I’m wondering what your opinions are, in general, as far as run pace during the taper period.
HH says to keep up the intensity, but that isn’t very specific. I’ve read “race pace or faster” elsewhere.
I'm thinking I’ve made it this far without injury (which is a victory already to me!) so it’s ok to push it on the remaining relatively short runs.
I did 12 miles on Sunday at what I’m hoping will be something close to my race/target pace, but I was pretty sore yesterday.
I’m feeling MUCH better today though and am doing 4 today after work. The longest remaining run is 8.
Anyway, what I’m asking is… Is it better to take these remaining runs a little easy (say 30 sec slower than the target pace) and shoot to be in tiptop shape for race day? Or, is it better to push it to maintain the gains made over the past 16 weeks? (not hard enough to risk injury, but enough to risk not being 100% for the race) Or, something in between??
What do you think?
Thanks!
Chris
I’ve been following Hal Higdon Novice 1, faithfully, except for missing one or two short runs somewhere in the middle when I had a medical thing going on.
I’m wondering what your opinions are, in general, as far as run pace during the taper period.
HH says to keep up the intensity, but that isn’t very specific. I’ve read “race pace or faster” elsewhere.
I'm thinking I’ve made it this far without injury (which is a victory already to me!) so it’s ok to push it on the remaining relatively short runs.
I did 12 miles on Sunday at what I’m hoping will be something close to my race/target pace, but I was pretty sore yesterday.
I’m feeling MUCH better today though and am doing 4 today after work. The longest remaining run is 8.
Anyway, what I’m asking is… Is it better to take these remaining runs a little easy (say 30 sec slower than the target pace) and shoot to be in tiptop shape for race day? Or, is it better to push it to maintain the gains made over the past 16 weeks? (not hard enough to risk injury, but enough to risk not being 100% for the race) Or, something in between??
What do you think?
Thanks!
Chris
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Replies
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The idea during the taper is to reduce the overall volume and the volume of intensity, but not the level of intensity itself. So, let's say that you are running 50 miles per week and of those 50 miles, 10 of them were at MP. When you go into your taper, you cut the total volume (that's the 50 miles) to 25 and keep the same ratio of intensity, so you would do 5 miles at MP.
Make sense?0 -
I'm following HH Novice 2 for my marathon on Sunday. I just did my last "long" run of 8 miles last weekend and this week, I have three miles today, 2 miles tomorrow and 2 miles Saturday. For these last runs, I'm not letting up any on the pace. If anything, I find pushing myself a little bit more for these short runs is fun. Recovery time is quick for me for these short distances, I personally don't feel a need to slow down this week.0
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What Carson said. But I'd add that it's always nice to do *some* running at marathon pace each day in your final week, just to get used to that pace. So if your plan has you doing 4 easy miles on the Wednesday before the race, you might run mile 3 at marathon pace. That will help you "lock in" to your planned pace on race day.0
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Mine was pretty much around the same last year when i trained for Houston, just less volume like Carson was saying. I am kinda wierd....the four days before a marathon all i do is stretching and some light core work. That has worked well for me the last few I have ran. I noticed most training schedules have you running up to the day before. My legs were just never fresh when i did that.0
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Glad this topic came up. I just finished my longest today, heading into taper now with 17 days to go.0
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My last long run is this weekend, 20 miles. Then the taper starts. I was worried about running too close to the race too, because of having tired legs. I'm glad this came up too!0
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Thanks all, today felt great! I pushed it a little but nothing crazy. I'll probably back it off some for the last 6 and 8 mile runs, and just run the few shorter ones at a faster pace, but still keeping it under 10k pace though. That's what I've been doing all along I suppose, just a bit faster, maybe by :30-:45/mile. Most of my training I ran pretty slowly on purpose because I really hurt myself training for a half early this year. Hopefully I have a better base at this point.0
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The idea during the taper is to reduce the overall volume and the volume of intensity, but not the level of intensity itself. So, let's say that you are running 50 miles per week and of those 50 miles, 10 of them were at MP. When you go into your taper, you cut the total volume (that's the 50 miles) to 25 and keep the same ratio of intensity, so you would do 5 miles at MP.
Make sense?
I couldn't have said it better myself. This ^^
As a side note, you want to also listen to your body. If your body is worn down from the training, it's good to take an extra rest day during taper or do a short run at your race pace...and by short, I mean in the 4-6 mile range.0 -
Thanks all, today felt great! I pushed it a little but nothing crazy. I'll probably back it off some for the last 6 and 8 mile runs, and just run the few shorter ones at a faster pace, but still keeping it under 10k pace though. That's what I've been doing all along I suppose, just a bit faster, maybe by :30-:45/mile. Most of my training I ran pretty slowly on purpose because I really hurt myself training for a half early this year. Hopefully I have a better base at this point.
Why that fast? What is the purpose of that run and does running it at that pace meet the purpose?0
