Taper Time

Yep, it is THAT time of my training when I need to cut down on mileage, take it easy and only fine tune what was already trained and recharge my batteries. Comes in handy, because it is lots of stuff going on at work so I can still have enough sleep with the time spared with less running. And yep, I am freaking out a little. But I guess that is normal for taper time.

Trying to be zen and not stressing out :)

What is taper? It is the time when you start cutting down on mileage before your race so you body can recover, be rested and recharged, simply ready on the race day. You can see on my March training graph bellow that my peak week was the one of March 12 with 50.74 miles (81.66 km) in my feet (the remaining half mile was swimming). Then we went down with the tune up race on Saturday (VŠ liga again), will talk about it in another post very soon :)

Click on the picture to zoom in

This week, there has been quite some intensity, but fewer miles. Ended today with 3x 600m on a slight incline with heart rate reaching 180 BPM and 2.5 miles (4 km) at 8:02 min/mile (5:00 min/km). Tomorrow is day off, Friday easy warm up, stretches, abc and 3 km at race pace. Saturday - the Hervis 1/2 Marathon Prague. You can check the air view video of the course:

And of course, you can come to cheer the runners if you are not one of the 11 thousand runners running the race :) Drop me a comment about your spectator location so I can be ready to wave and smile :D :D :D

Taper time tips:

Loading on carbs

Don't overdo this, simply increase the ratio of carbs that you are already used to in your diet. RW advice: Instead of eating chicken with rice, eat rice with chicken :)

Stressing about your mileage

It is perfectly OK to cut down your mileage during taper, don't try to add any miles extra from your training plan / usual routine. They won't do any good for you in the last week before the race (or two weeks in case of marathon), they can only harm you if they suck the energy out of you. Go though your training logs so you can see you did your homework, you did your miles and workouts and you are ready to go! Do few yoga breaths to get the zen attitude!

Practice races

Don't include a "test race" that you go running all out. You can confirm you were in great shape, but you won't have enough time for recovery. (I will come back to the race I did last weekend - I did not run it as a 10 km race, but as a short tempo run where I slowed down not to get too tired and loaded on lactate.) Then you would have confirmation that you were in great shape, but you wouldn't be in shape for your A race you were working so hard to train for.

Don't try anything new

In the week before your race and especially the night before the race and the day of the race itself, don't try anything new. All week go with the well tested recipes, drinks, food supplements and so on. For the race day stick with your routine, use the energy sources you are used to and you tried during your long training runs. This applies also for your clothes, shoes, head protection etc.

Sleep well

I know it is easier said than done. But you should try to get in at least 8 hours of sleep each night in the week before your race. You might be nervous the last night before the race and not sleep good enough, but that is OK if you had enough sleep all the week before. That's what counts.

Spend time with your friends

You have the extra time on your hands that is no longer used for the crazy mileage you have been doing all the past months. Spend the time with your great friends that accepted the fact of you spending most time with your love for running. You will work on your friendships and have no time to freak out about your race (that much :) ).

Some sources for further information:

Runner's World article

Greg McMillan's article about pre-marathon mistakes

Running Times' Finishing Touches (more for marathon training)

Articles in Czech:

Miloš Škorpil and his 21 "kicks" (advice) for your 21 km

Běhej.com on how to avoid stress on the race day