How to Taper for a Half Marathon

A taper is a period of time in which you reduce the intensity and amount of training you do leading up to an important event. For a half marathon, you should consider tapering in the two weeks before your race.

When you train, you are putting stress on your body. This stress is useful only if you allow your body the rest it needs to adapt and grow stronger. When you are out on a long run or doing a hard workout, you are not actually getting any stronger in that moment. Rather, you are providing your body with the signals it needs so that it rebuild itself stronger during periods of recovery.

What this means is that after increasing your mileage and maybe incorporating some speedwork in preparation for your half marathon, you need to allow your body a period of time to adapt and gain the benefits of all that hard work. At the same time, you certainly don't want to lose any fitness. The goal is to keep your legs fresh without becoming a complete couch potato. This balance of allowing adequate recovery and maintaining fitness is where the magic of the taper comes into play.

Most runners will get the most benefit out of a 10 - 14 day taper. You can determine the start day of your taper by counting backward from race day by this many days. Exactly how long you taper for and the specifics of what it looks like will vary for each individual depending on fitness, experience, and a few other factors. If this is your first time tapering, we recommend you begin with a full two week taper.

The longest run of your training should occur about 14 days out from your half marathon. This will probably be about 10 - 11 miles long, but for more specific recommendations, be sure to check out Coach Cory Smith's beginning and advanced training plans.

Following this long run, you will begin your taper, but your training should not change too drastically! Instead, you will want to think of decreasing your mileage and intensity to about 60% of what you did in your biggest week.

• Your total weekly mileage should be about 60% of what your biggest week was. Don't decrease the number of runs you do, just make each run shorter.
• If you have been doing any weekly intensity (speedwork) runs, you should still do this workout - but decrease the amount of time you spend running hard so that it's only about 60% of what you would normally do.

This week, your main goal is to keep your legs loose and fresh while keeping energy levels high and your mind calm. Your total weekly mileage should drop to about 40% of what you did in your biggest week (not including the mileage of the race).

• Reduce mileage to 40% of what you did in your biggest week, not including race day.
• If you normally include intensity, you can incorporate a couple efforts about 5 days out from race day. If you do not normally do speedwork, now is not the time to start!
• Use your extra time to focus on getting race day logistics dialed in, eating good quality nutrition, and enjoying the experience!