Won't hurt a thing. Don't worry about it.

If this is your first marathon, you might actually feel stronger with a 6 mile run before your 22-miler next weekend because you have a little more recovery time after your 20-miler.

Having a successful marathon is all about the ~600-1000 miles you run in training, not about any one run. You could skip that 22 mile run and still do just fine (not that I would suggest it), assuming all your other training has gone well.

The 13 mile "long" run this week between last week's 20 and next week's 22 is simply built in as a rest week. So running 6 is "just as good" from a training value perspective as the 13 since it is supposed to be easier than the previous week, or the next week.

I would actually skip the 22 miler and focus more on the tapering. That 22 mile run won't help you much at this point in time. The risk of overtraining is 10x more important than under training.

Run the 13 miler then the 6 miler. You make room for this by skipping the 22 miler.

glevinso wrote: »

Stoshew71 wrote: »

I would actually skip the 22 miler and focus more on the tapering. That 22 mile run won't help you much at this point in time. The risk of overtraining is 10x more important than under training.

Run the 13 miler then the 6 miler. You make room for this by skipping the 22 miler.

Depends on how taxing the 22 miles will be. Some of that depends on speed (and thus time spent running) but some of that really just depends on how well a person recovers. A 22 mile run on 12/26 still leaves three FULL weeks of taper, which is more than enough to back down the intensity and recover.

If the 20 beat you up badly, then perhaps rethinking 22 is a good idea. However having a four week taper is not really a good idea. You *WILL* lose fitness. For what it's worth I personally tend to do terribly with long tapers. Two weeks max for me or I start to feel like a slug. And that applies to tapering for a marathon or even a full Ironman. I'll run 22 miles only 2 weeks out, then 12 miles the weekend before the race. Any more of a taper and I come to race day feeling heavy and slow.

Ahhh... for some reason I thought she said she only had 3 weeks left.

Now I am following her. She has the weeks, but she can only do 6 instead of the 13.
[Sorry, I had to re-read what she wrote.]

Yeah, this is a cutback week for her then. 20-13-22-then taper. I got it now.
Then yes, what everyone said. Doing 6 instead of the 13 won't hurt you. it's a cutback week. The idea is to allow your body to absorb the previous training before you progress onto the 22.


Now to adress over tapering which is what @glevinso is saying. I had a decision to make after my HM test trial. I usually run the Huntsville Half (which is normally scheduled for the closest Saturday to Veteran's day) as my time trial to the Rocket City Marathon (which was this past weekend).

I get into the situation that the week after the Half ends up being the last week of hard training. But if I race the half (because it is my time trial) I will need to recover from the half before I get back into my training. So I am in a situation where either:

A: I force myself to train harder than I am supposed to and train when I need to recover
B: I allow myself to recover from the recent half but end up loosing that final week of training and end up with a 4 week taper instead of a 3 week taper

This is what i had to decide on this year. The Monday morning after my Half I was really sore but had 10 miles scheduled. I ended up skipping my morning run, but later on in the evening went out for an easy 6. I then did my tempo run that Tuesday a little slower than normal even though i was sore, and slowly made up the miles I missed Monday later on in the week. This has nothing to do with the OP's situation. But just to acknowldge what @glevinso is saying.

ninav1980 wrote: »

thanks for everyones guidance.

I have been training since July, so I have had a chance to build up to my long runs with no injury. When I did my 20 miles last Saturday, I felt fine, no problems. The next day my body felt fine, no soreness, pain, etc... I didnt feel like I even ran at all.

So as far as the under/overtapering...

My long run schedule is as follows

6 miles-This weekend
22 miles-Dec 26
14 miles-Jan 2
9 miles-Jan 9<---- not sure about this distance. Still deciding as I might need to increase.
MARATHON-JANUARY 17TH!!!!

^^^^^
Does this look like a good idea?

I know there are a ton of ideas out there and suggested training plans. I took a little from each and modified for my needs.

Looks fine to me. I wouldn't worry about that 9 miler. Don't change it except to make it SHORTER if you want. Not longer though.

Do you have any other experience to draw from regarding tapers? I know from my experience at this point I don't do well with a 3 week taper.

For my last marathon I actually ran a full marathon 2 weeks before it (but stopped actually running at pace at 22 miles, and easy walk/jogged the last 4 miles). Then ran 12 the weekend right before.