Tapering For My First Marathon
Hi, I'm Sarah.
And welcome back to the series where I'm training to run my first ever
marathon. Now, as I film this, there are just two weeks to go until race day.
And that means one thing: it's time to taper.
Now I'm sure, like many of you out there, I've never really tapered before.
So this is going to be a bit of a learning curve,
but thankfully I've got The Running Channel team, and you lovely people,
The Running Channel community, to help get me through it with lots of great
tips and advice. So stay tuned for some taper tips.
We're going to go through how to tackle the final runs in the lead up to the
race, and most importantly,
how to stay calm in the lead up to the marathon day itself,
and what better way to go through it all than on one of my last long runs,
so let's go do it.
So let's start off by going through what tapering actually is, and what tapering
means is gradually reducing your training in the lead up to race day,
to ensure that you have rested and recovered. Now,
this might not seem natural to ease off just as race day approaches and
everything else is kind of ramping up.
But tapering is really key to ensure that you can hit peak speed
and endurance on race day itself. And don't just take my word for it,
because this is exactly what the elites do as well.
So Kipchoge would've tapered before his two hour attempt.
I don't think any amount of tapering is going to make me that fast though.
My taper period started last weekend with my last long run
before race day, which was a half marathon.
And now all of my runs are shorter than that leading up to the race.
You might find though that some plans are longer or shorter,
but they'll all gradually start to ease off before the big day.
You might be thinking at this point, brilliant, I've got more time on my hands.
This means I can do more strength and conditioning, a bit more yoga,
maybe go get a sports massage that I've been avoiding for ages. Wrong.
It's really best not to add in anything or double up on stuff that you've been
doing already because you don't want to shock your body and put yourself at risk
of injury or even worse,
you don't want to end up with DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness - on race day.
So don't be doing any of that.
I know I am definitely going to be guilty of wanting to do that,
but I'm going to try and refrain,
but then what do you do with all the spare time that you've got on your hands?
Well, in the last episode, I asked you, the lovely Running Channel community,
any tips, suggestions, or hacks of what to do with your taper.
So here's a quick-fire rundown of some tapering tips.
So tip number one is to train your brain. Might sound weird, but what
I mean by this is if you struggle with motivation during a run,
I know I definitely battle with my brain when I'm into the depths of a long run,
so when you've got the spare time on your hands,
why don't you start working on mantras or little things that you can say to
yourself to get you through that marathon and get you to the finish line?
My personal favourite is leave everything on the course. That
really fires me up, gets me angry and makes me power through
the end. Speaking of brain training,
my brain is not feeling it today.
I spent all morning watching the London Marathon, which is so inspiring,
but I feel like it can either make you go one of two ways.
It can either make you go, yes, I'm going to do that.
I'm going to get out and feel great and do it. And it's going to be amazing.
Or what I'm feeling right now is, oh, these people are better than me.
All of them are running a marathon. I can't do that. They're really fast.
I'm not going to be able to do it. It's something that's going to go wrong.
And that is where the mantras come in. Leave everything on the run. I mean,
not right now. I don't want to injure myself.
But another one is, that I loved, that I saw at a half marathon
the other week was: whine now, wine later.
That's a complicated spelling one. Not really that complicated.
There are loads out there.
Second piece of advice is: you might feel sluggish, and that is okay.
This is such a great one. And one that I can relate to already.
You might feel sluggish on some runs, you might feel lazier,
or you might just lose a bit of mojo because you're not going out as much and
your schedule isn't as hectic anymore. And that is totally fine.
And that is totally normal as well.
So trust in the fact that that's going to happen, it's all okay,
and stick with that taper because it's going to get you through to race day.
Next tip is eat well and sleep well. Now again,
this doesn't mean throwing your usual diet out the window and eating salad
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pay attention to what you're eating.
Treat your life as if you're preparing for that long run.
So get a good balance of nutrients, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates,
everything that you would do in the lead up to a long run.
That's what you have time to do now in the taper. And sleep,
sleep is so important. I have neglected the importance of sleep before,
and it's amazing how, when I've only been getting six or seven hours a night,
I can have an absolutely rubbish run. And then as soon as I get an extra hour,
I'm singing and dancing, springing everywhere.
I've got an extra spring in my step and the world just seems like a better
place. And all I had to do was stop watching TV an hour earlier,
or set my alarm a little bit later. So eat and sleep,
eat, and sleep. Just coming up to 13K.
I went out in the afternoon and I forgotten that it's October now.
So it's getting dark so early. It's quite sad.
I guess that has been the best bit of training over the summer is that there's
no time constraint on when you can go out for a run,
but soon there will be.
Which is another positive of the taper.
Not going to have to stress about fitting in the runs
quite as much as I have been. The last tip might sound like an obvious one,
but it is a very important one. And that is: prepare for race day.
As I said, this might sound like the obvious. However,
do you know what time your wave starts?
Do you know where to pick up your race number? Does it get delivered to you?
Do you have to pick it up?
Do you know where the toilets are in the race village?
All of these are questions that you're going to want to know the answer to well
in advance of race day. So do your homework.
I'm going to be treating this race like an exam and I want to pass.
So I'm going to make sure that I find out every single thing possible about this
race before race day. So that I'm well-prepared,
I'm not going to panic or stress on the day. And speaking of race day,
that also means that I need to make a very important decision about kit and what
shoes I'm going to be wearing. And I have made that decision so quick,
pause this video right now and have a guess as to which pair of shoes I'm going
to be wearing on race day. Have you had your guess? It was an obvious answer.
They are the Mizuno Wave Rider 25 shoes.
I have absolutely loved training in these shoes.
I've had four months of training in them and I haven't had a single blister,
absolutely loved them. So they are my shoe of choice.
And I can't wait to strut around Amsterdam in these shoes.
And if you like the
look of them, it's your lucky day because we are going to be giving away a pair of
these shoes to one of you. All you have to do to enter
is like this video, drop a comment down below,
and if you're not sure what to comment, why don't you tell me,
what is your bucket list race? I'll go first.
Mine is there's one in Wales called man versus horse.
I think I'd definitely be faster if I was on the horse,
but sounds like quite a fun day out to be honest.
Not every run is going to go to plan. And that one for me
was a bit of a 'blergh'.
I've watched, been watching London Marathon all day.
I'm feeling really inspired,
wanting to go out and do a good session,
have a big smile on my face, but in truth,
that was a bit of a rubbish one. Um,
my leg is still feeling a little bit of sore from the half marathon that I did
last week.
My knee is feeling like it is rearing its ugly head
of being a little bit painful. So,
I did 90 minutes and then stopped.
That is technically what was on the plan for today. But, um,
because I was resting after the half marathon,
I missed a 5k easy, 10K at marathon pace,
5k easy session, which I wanted to do today, but
the extra 5k isn't going to do anything magic.
I know that, I keep telling myself that, um,
and that's why I've stopped, but there's just that other half of my brain,
that's going, you failed, you
haven't ticked off all the sessions for this week. That is one big failure
and it's not, I know it's not,
but it's always nice to finish a session on a high.
And I don't feel on a high.
I feel annoyed at my left leg for not feeling
great. It's fine to walk on. I don't think it's an injury.
I think it's just four months of training taking its toll,
but hopefully two weeks of tapering and a lot of
TLC and doing the right things will make sure that my leg
is feeling good for marathon day fingers crossed.
What it does mean is that I am nowhere near my house and I now have like a three
K walk home. Good.
So I'm just walking home feeling a little bit sorry for myself
if I'm totally honest, but two weeks ago I felt great.
Two weeks later, I don't feel great.
I'm sure in two weeks time for the marathon I'll feel good again. Here's hoping.
But all of the sessions are tapering off now. So next weekend,
it's only 60 minutes for my Sunday long run.
And then in the week leading up to the race,
usually I'd have 10K followed by 8 x 100 metre strides.
And on the last it's only 30 minutes followed by 4 x 100 metres.
So I'm going to have all the time in the world to just sit around and stress
about the race.
I don't know if you've ever heard of the word maranoia - 'marathon paranoia' - but,
uh, I'm feeling that right now on a, on a big level, I feel like any,
any kind of pothole or bump in the road or like tree root that I could trip
over, you know, usually I'd notice it, but now I notice it.
And I'm very aware of like,
