Three Weeks To Go before Marathon and Half Marathon

Time to Taper

As your key race approaches it’s tempting to run too fast or too far during the final few weeks of workouts. You need to decide how to adjust your training over the final two weeks before your race. This will depend on how much you have been training and the intensity of your workouts. Your goal is to allow recovery from all the hard workouts over the past few months without losing your fitness. Many runners overtrain during the final three weeks and don’t run the best time they could.

There are three basic scenarios that you could be facing before the race and you should taper differently before the race under each scenario:

1. You have trained a high volume of running and cross training;
2. You have trained at moderate weekly mileage and a high level of intensity; and,
3. You are building your fitness and have not run high mileage or high intensity.

 This newsletter is about how to pace yourself during tempo runs and speedwork as you taper off on long distances leading up to your race. Strategically timing your distance reduction and controlling your paces can significantly improve your race time.

High Volume of Running and Cross Training

The Forerunners training program is based on moderate distances of 40 to 60km per week. However some of the crew will run more than the recommended mileage. If you have been running more than 100km per week you should reduce your volume significantly for your best result. With two weeks to go you should taper to 80km and with one week to go taper to 50km per week or more.

If you run between 50km to 90km per week you should reduce your volume by ten percent with two weeks to go and by thirty percent during the final week. This will allow you to taper without loss of fitness.

I would put all cross training on hold for two weeks as that will reduce your fatigue levels and allow for better recovery. Cross training is not as event specific training as running and may detract from your speed. Only continue with cross training in near injury scenarios and your workouts should be an easy effort.

As you are reducing your distance during the final two or three weeks of your taper you should continue with your speed work and tempo workouts. Your speedwork and tempo workouts contribute to your weekly mileage and help maintain your fitness. They also support your VO2, anaerobic and aerobic thresholds which are linked to your performance time.

High Intensity Training

Your training program may be lower volume of 30km to 60km per week with more emphasis on speed and pace. Our training program calls for only three runs per week and if you reduce your running too much your fitness will drop off too quickly. You can’t continue with long runs over 15km because you need to recover from several weeks of very long runs, but you can maintain the tempo runs and speed runs. Yes, continue with your tempo runs and speed work but don’t max out in your workouts. Run your workouts in control by keeping at a 90 to 97 percent level of your usual effort.

If you normally run 10km speed work at 5 minutes per km then reduce speed to 5:10/5:15 per km. Tempo work is less intense so you can keep close to your regular tempo pace, only a little bit easier by reducing speed by 5 to 10 seconds per km. Considering tempo runs and speedwork, most likely you can do the most damage during the speedwork because your legs are sensitive and susceptible to injury after your longest runs. Avoid the temptation of running at top speed and you will be ok.

Building Fitness

You started training later in the season than everyone else and are catching up. The third scenario is where you are continuing to build your fitness for the race. For example with four weeks to go before the half you have run a 12km long run which is not enough for the half marathon just weeks away. This is like cramming for the exam. You would want to continue to increase your distance. Run a 14km long run, then 16km, then another 18km followed by the race the next weekend. There is no taper. You wouldn’t have the benefit of tapering but you would have a good fitness level. You likely will not run your best half marathon but you will complete the event in a reasonable time.

Taper Workouts

Tempo Runs 

Half and Full Marathoners:

1)   20 days to go: After warm-up – 8km to 14km total at 15km/threshold to marathon pace.

2) 13 days to go: After warm-up – 8km to 14km total at 15km/threshold to marathon pace.  

3) 6 days to go: After warm-up – 8km to 10km total at half marathon to marathon pace.

Speed Workouts 

Half and Full Marathoners:

1)   18 days to go: After warm-up – 6km to 10km total of intervals including recovery (intervals at 10km to 15km/threshold pace).

2) 11 days to go: After warm-up – 6km to 10km total of intervals including recovery (intervals at 10km to 15km/threshold pace).

3) 4 days to go: After warm-up – 5km to 6km total of intervals including recovery (intervals at 10km to 15km/threshold pace).

Long Runs

Marathoners final two long runs: 

1) 15 days to go 27km easy pace.

2) 8 days to go 18km easy pace.

Half Marathoners final two long runs: 

1) 15 days to go 18km easy pace.

2) 8 days to go 15km easy pace.

The long runs are a great chance to practice for other race day strategies. What is your fuel loading strategy and when do you start to execute it? How long before the race will you wake up, when and what will you have for breakfast? 

With three weeks to go there is time to fine tune your fitness and race day plan which will improve your race results.