Okay, so you’ve trained for months for your big race (marathon, half, Ironman, 10k, etc.) and you are antsy with 2-4 weeks before the event – what do you do? You do what is called a taper. A taper is when you decrease the amount of mileage you have been doing these past 3-5 months, so your body can recover from all the stress and strenuous routines you’ve put your poor muscles through.

You Will Not Lose Your Fitness

It takes 3-4 weeks to lose the fitness you’ve built up, so by decreasing your mileage a little bit doesn’t mean you will get slower. Actually, your body needs a break, if it is going to perform at its highest level on race day. I am going to use a marathon training scenario as an example on what to do 4 weeks out to 1 week before your competitive race. Let’s assume you have been averaging 40-50 miles a week, which is what an average marathon runner who has done maybe 1 or 2 marathons before will log in.

4 weeks out

Mileage can either stay at the same amount or you can drop it by 5-10% (I usually do a 3 week taper, but everyone is different here – you know your body better than anyone). This week or next should be your final long run (16-22 miles).

3 weeks out

Drop mileage down by 10-20% (So if you were doing 50 miles per week – this week’s mileage would be 40-45 miles). This week or last week needs to be where you put in your last long run (16-22 miles).

2 weeks out

Drop mileage 25-30% (using a 50 mile week average – this week’s mileage is 35-37 miles for the week). Longest run of the week 10-16 miles.

1 week out

(NOT counting race) – drop mileage by 50-60% (so 20-25 miles for the week). Your long run is the marathon race.

Caveat

Here’s the caveat to the taper – don’t decrease the intensity of your workouts just the mileage. You still need to remind your body to run the pace you’ve been training so hard to reach, so there is no jolt to the system when you get on the starting line.

What do I mean?

I mean if you usually do a steady state run for 10 miles, during your taper, you may want to do the steady state run for 6-8 miles. If you usually do 12 x 800 for a workout, you may only do 6-8 x 800 the weeks leading up to the race. If you normally do marathon pace during you long run for 12 miles, the weeks leading up to the race you may only do marathon pace for 4-8 miles.

This philosophy would hold true if you were preparing for a Olympic distance, half or full Ironman as well; or for that matter any endurance event you are getting set for.

Don’t Push Through Nagging Injuries

The last thing I’ll add here is what to do if you are coming down with nagging injuries. Nothing too critical – your calves or hamstrings are a bit tight maybe or your knees are bit sorer than usual. This is the time to rest and recover. With 3-4 weeks before your endurance event there is no real magic workout that’s going to have you drop minutes off you’re time. Less is more now. Rest is essential. If you take a few days off to heal, please please please don’t try to over-compensate your first day back with a 16-mile run  or an 80-mile cycle ride because you missed it last week. If you listen closely your body will tell you everything.

It’s good to be anxious – it means you’re ready – now go out there and kick some butt!

So you are worried about what competition pace should be for your  full or half marathon. You are worried that you are going to bonk at the 10- or 20-mile mark. How do you know how fast to run this goal race in the first place?

Long Runs

A good place to start is what pace are you running for your long runs. The long runs are supposed to be run at an easy pace – easy pace, by the way, should be slower than your goal marathon or half marathon pace. So when I was training seriously, my goal marathon pace was in the 5:30s per mile. Do you think every weekend I went out and ran 12-20 miles @ 5:30 pace??? No way! Even if I were able to run that pace week in and week out, come race day my body would have been wrecked. So on my long easy runs I would run 30 to 60 seconds slower than my MP (marathon pace).

Now, if you have run a half or full marathon before and know what your pace was for that race, you can work backwards. So if you run a 10 min/mi pace then your long easy runs should be run at 10:30 to 11:00 pace.

Understand, these are tips to get you to the finish line. If you are a more advanced runner, than some of your long runs are going to have time or distance durations of paces at 10K, half, and marathon thrown in there – but for you newbies out there, your first goal should be to finish.

Using Shorter Runs

If you have never run a full or half marathon before then jump in a race or do a time trial at a shorter distance (5K to half marathon). Once you have your time from this race/trial then you can plug that into a pace calculator to get your projected time for the longer race.

So, if you go out and run an all-out 5 mile time trial by yourself and it takes you 1 hour (12 min/mi) to finish, then according to the McMillan Race Pace Calculator your marathon time would be 5:52:35 or (13:27 min/mi) and your half marathon time would be 2:47:32 (12:47 min/mi).

Time Trial or Race

I would try to use a race/trial that was roughly about half the distance of your goal race (So, a 10K and half marathon) – this will give you a more accurate assessment of where you are in regards to your running shape. The reason being is some individuals are naturally quicker than others and running, for example, a 5K time trial to figure out one’s marathon projected time may give one a false sense of security if he/she hasn’t put in the miles or time needed to be prepared to run a full marathon.

I am that sort of runner myself. Even though I am nowhere near marathon shape right now I am in good mile shape (4:30). If I plug a time of 4:30 for a mile into the calculator, it spits out my projected marathon time of 2:32.12. (5:49 min/mi) And while I have run a faster marathon in my life, I know there is no way at this juncture that I could run a 2:32 marathon with the sort of endurance work (or lack thereof) I have done recently.

Start Paying Attention

The bottom line is set yourself up for success come race day. Just because your friend wants to run a sub-4:30 hour marathon doesn’t mean you should try that, too. Your training times will let you know where you should be come race day. If you are not paying attention to your pace – start now! Not because you have huge aspirations to be the next Olympic hopeful, but because a good plan on race day is almost as important as the good training that leads up to the race.

Rule of thumb: Add or subtract 20-30 seconds per mile for each major distance you go up or down (5K, 10K, Half, and Full) to figure out your goal times.The slower your pace at a shorter distance, the more seconds you will need to add to your per mile average for the longer races.

Example: If you run an 8 min/mi for a 5K then approximately your paces for longer distances would be:

10K pace will be 8:20
Half pace will be 8:40
Full pace will be 9:00

But if you run a 10 min/mi 5k, then approximately your paces for longer distances would be:

10K pace will be 10:25
Half pace will be 10:55
Full pace will be 11:30

Now that you know what paces to run – you can start racing smarter. Good luck!

How To Run Proper Pace without GPS…No, Really!

Do You Have Time for a Coach?

I have coached individuals who have hired me to put together a program for them and I have either sat down with them for 30-45 minutes in person or discussed over the phone their goals, and then I go back to my home and put together a plan…

Do You Have Time?

Here’s the problem – one needs to communicate with his/her coach what he really wants out of his endurance training in order to get the most out of a program. I would argue that if you don’t have time to actually see your coach at least a couple times a month (at minimum) then it’s not worth paying hundreds of dollars for a personalized program. If your time is so limited that you can’t find 4-6 hours in a month to either train or go over with your coach what is occurring in your training, then again, I would simply go to Runner’s World and look for a plan to follow for you next race.

Share What’s Going On

Bottom line, it simply comes down to clear communication. How do you think a coach is going to be able to know if a program is working for you or not, if you never share your progress with him/her? Simply saying “everything is okay” or not replying to an email where your coach asks if the training is going well for you, will most likely lead to injury, over training, or under training on your part.

I feel bad when clients don’t reach their goals, but if they tell me the week before their big race that their endurance training kicked their butt and they are dragging, it’s too late for me to remedy…

So, while it’s great to get a personal trainer or coach, don’t get one if you don’t have the time to really get out of it the time and money you are investing.