My Marathon Taper and Carb Loading

DISCLAIMER: I tend to sometimes speak or write without knowing what the heck I am talking about.  I welcome any comments.  So please comment below if you caught me in a lie or have a better idea.  It's how I learn.  I'm a big boy. 

So this week is an interesting week.  It's my last big week before I start my 3 week taper for RCM on December 12th.
It's also the week coming out from the Huntsville Half.  Theoretically I should be recovering from my half but I also don't want to get caught into a 4 week taper.  So about as much as it will suck, I must press on this week.

Sunday wasn't too bad (the day after my half) and Sunday's are usually my rest day.  So I rested and was all ready to start my last week back up on Monday.  Woke up Monday morning and really felt the DOMS.  This was very delayed.  So I decided to skip my morning run.  At work I did some stretching at my desk and rolled around on a tennis ball that I keep at my desk.

Later that night I decided to sneak in 5.5 easy miles.  Woke up Tuesday morning for my group run with my WRH Brueggers crew.  1 mile warmup, then a tempo'ish/steady state pace for the first 5 miles then followed up with 4.5 miles.  I usually do strides but I elected to skip them.  I really felt my glutes get sore as I eased into my easy pace run. 

So tomorrow I have my recovery run scheduled, then Thursday Panera Pounders Group Run.  Another recovery run on Friday and then my last big long run for Saturday.  Then my 3 week taper.  Here is my basic philosophy that I developed for marathon taper and combined with the carb load.  I posted this before in the MFP forums, so it was a simple copy and paste.


Some things about carb loading. it's a little more complex than just eating a bunch more carbs.

They did different studies. The first was done by a Sweedish physiologist named Gunvar Ahlborg. He found out if you trained really hard at the beginning of the week going into race weekend for 2 or 3 days along with eating low amounts of carbs, then followed up by 3 days of rest and eating extra carbs - the first few days almost depleted all of your glycogen, then followed up with no exercise and lots of carbs - the body went into what is called glycogen overload. That means that your body can temporarily store more glycogen than it can normally store. Almost twice as much can be stored. This is awesome. The ability to store almost twice the extra glycogen going into race day. However, the cost of this is an intense set of workouts early on the week. The body needs tapering and rests for a few weeks so the muscles are at their best going into race day. So this strategy was not the ideal. Glycogen overload = good, muscle overuse = not so good.

So some smart people discovered that you didn't need to almost completely deplete all your glycogen in order to maximize glycogen storage. You can get nearly the same glycogen benefits if you follow a less intense strategy.

The No-Depletion Carbo-Loading Method
1.Perform a long workout (but not an exhaustive workout) one week before race day.
2.Eat normally (55-60% carbohydrate) until three days before a longer race.
3.Eat a high-carb diet (70%) the final three days before racing while training very lightly.

During the carb load, you eat more carbs but less fat and protein in order to maintain the same number of calories. Early in the week, before carb load starts, you can do light workouts low mileage, but once carb load starts, you are supposed to stop working out. You can probably get one short shakeout run the day before or 2 days before race day, but that is it. No cross training is allowed either.

OK! So that is the general idea behind it, but the devil is in the details. Tapering and Carb Loading is really more of an art than a science. So much of this depends on how your body make up and how it reacts to the specific training you did all year. To make a long story short, the first time you attempt this, you are almost going to get it wrong. You have to learn how your body reacts to different stuff and do something different the next time around as you learn more about how your body specifically reacts. First off, do you do better by taking a complete day off from running the day before a race, or do you do better by going out for a short 1 mile or 2 mile jog the day before a race. Different people react differently. Intensity going into race week. Some people can do better by maintaining the same intensities of the same workouts they did in the last few weeks of training during their taper, but with just reduced mileage. So if you were doing VO2max and repeat intervals during training, you continue that into the taper but with reduced mileage. Other people, they do better by going no faster than goal race pace during taper. Others do better with some short bursts thrown in at slightly faster than goal race pace.

So before we get into the details of carb loading, let's start with the taper. Because both go hand in hand. What I will give you here is what we will call a "text book" taper for a marathon. What that means, you will have to learn through experience on how to modify this to make it best work out for you.

Tapering should mean you cut volume, but not intensity. Meaning, not everything is a slow easy jog. However, you should still have like 70-80% of all your running to be easy or recovery pace with the remaining devoted towards your more speedier workouts. This is when you focus on your goal race pace. It is sometimes wise to throw in short bursts of slightly faster than goal race pace just to remind your muscles of this pace in times you need a short burst during the race. It also makes your goal race pace seem easier. But we are not talking repeat intervals, or major workouts at slightly faster than race pace. You may however be the rare person that performs better by actually working out at faster than race pace during a taper. But even in this case, the volume of this is very small. Most of your "speed workouts" should be at goal race pace.

So you figure out what was the peak number of miles during training (before taper). I personally took an average of the last 3 weeks going into my taper the first time I did this. Whatever number you come up with will be your base mileage for the taper. So you have 3 week tapers and you have 2 week tapers. Again, some people actually do better in a 2 week taper, but the general agreement is a 3 week taper. So I will cover that one here. No cross training during this time.
No strength training this time. It will do you no good to do either. The "hay is in the barn" already. You won't make any gains that will effect your race this late in the game. The idea of a taper is to rest your muscles so they can heal, so that come race day, they are at their maximum strength. No major hill workouts. Try to run flat as much as you can. A normal diet is needed. Enough protein and healthy fat to aid in the muscle restoration process, and enough carbs to maintain healthy weight and energy levels. Eat all your vegetables and fruit and leafy vegetables/whole grains (fiber).

In the next 3 weeks, the volume of running will drop gradually. How you shave off each particular workout is a personal customization. Everyone reacts different. However, the idea is that your shorter runs remain the same, but the longer runs get their miles chopped off.

3 weeks before race day you run 80% of your base mileage for the taper.
-- your long run is reduced by 10-20% from your largest long run
-- If 20 miles was your biggest long run, run 16-18 miles.
2 weeks before race day you run 60% of your base mileage. (Others say 70-75%)
-- This is where it gets tricky and you have to learn how your body reacts.
-- VO2 workouts and tempo workouts should be replaced by goal race pace (GRP) workouts
--would be wise to throw in some strides or bursts at slightly faster than GRP
-- Long Run is 50-60% the max (If you ran a 20 miler, run 10-12 instead).
The week going into your race day
-- Significant mileage drop
-- Maybe 2 - 3 sessions this week.
-- Some people do great with a shake out run the day before, some people need the extra rest
--This week is the most trickiest part of the taper since it is difficult to know how your body specifically reacts.

This week is when you start your carb load. (start 3 days before the race and continue on even in the early morning hours before the race)

You should have gotten in at least 2 short workouts already before carb load starts. The last workout depends on whether you do better with a shake out run the day before or not. If not, then do your last short workout 2 or 3 days before race day. Remember, this is an easy paced run. No faster than goal race pace. Most of this last workout is much slower than GRP. Maybe a few bursts are done at GRP. Run in the shoes you plan to wear on race day as much as possible.
You should have worn the clothes (socks, shirt, shorts, underwear, etc.) and even all your accessories you plan to have on race day a few times already. If it's going to be cold at the start of the race, I have been known to buy a sweat shirt at the thrift store ($3) and wore it a few times in training, then come race day, if I need to toss it on the road (never to be seen again) it's no big deal.

3 days before Race Day
Start dropping fat and protein and increase carbs
Monitor closely how many calories you eat per day and how many grams of each macronutrient
The last thing you want to do is gain weight via fat- only maintain weight
You should know your maintenance calorie range by now
Make sure you get in electrolytes, and all your vitamins and minerals by eating a variety of foods and carbs. Remember, nothing new. Eat only foods you know how you will react to. That means you should have been eating most of this all throughout training. In the next 3 days, you will want to eat about 4 grams of carbs for every pound of body weight. (150 lb runner will need ~600 grams or 2,400 calories). I read on 1 site that you actually need 7-10 grams per kg of body weight (That would mean 3-4.5 grams per pound of body weight). This can be very hard if you are not used to eating this many carbs. As you eat mostly carbs with very little to no protein and fat, your blood glucose levels skyrocket. You will get sugar highs and crashes. You may get some GI distress.
Watch your total calorie intake for the day. Do not go over your maintenance level. use this MFP site to track what you eat. Eat more smaller meals if eating a ton of carbs makes you sick. This is the only 3 days you can go crazy on Reese's Peanut butter Cups and bottles of Coke. You will want to eat healthier carbs in the first couple of days (brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat bread, potatoes, whole fruit). But going into the last day, you will want quicker (simple) carbs and less fiber.
I tend to stop eating salads the day before a major race. if you are pretty regular and can be sure that you can have your last bowel movement the morning before the race, then go with what works. I personally don't chance it. I limit the amount of fiber I eat the day before race day.

VERY IMORTANT: Glycogen production requires lots of water. For every molecule of glycogen, 3 parts of water are bound. During the whole 3 days drink lots and lots of liquids. This means you WILL gain water weight during these last 3 days. But you will also shed this water weight during the race as you use up your glycogen. Drink sports drinks, drink Coke (or favorite soda), drink fruit juice. Just log it as you do. Pay attention to grams of carbs and total calories. Try not to go over total calories for the day beyond maintenance. Cut proteins and fats out if you must to get the number of grams of carbs in.

The night before can be very creative meal. Pancakes with extra syrup for dinner? Oh yeah. it can be more than just spaghetti. Measure everything. Log everything. Remember, nothing new either.

The night before the race get to bed early. (If you can sleep well). You will need to get up super early. Eat a small meal of carbs. 600 grams of carbs 3 hours before your race. You lost quite a bit of glycogen while sleeping. You need to top off. About an hour before the race, be sipping on Gatorade. Be careful not to over hydrate before the race or else you will need the porta potty early on the race.

The last 2 days before the race, try to stay off your feet as much as possible (minus a shake out run the day before if you need it). No cutting the grass. No helping a friend move in/out. Even limit the time to walk around at the expo the day before the race.


----------------------------------------------------------------
OK!  Now we are done with the general philosophy stuff, let's get into specifics.
I range about 60-65 miles during my peak training.
80% of this is 48-52 miles in the first week of my taper. 80% of this is 38-42 miles and should be easy running.
22 miles was my longest run but I will use 20 as my mark.  So next week I will run between 16-18 miles.

Following week: 60% of 60-65 miles is 36-39 miles.  Easy running:  29-31 miles. Long run: 10-12 miles.

I will figure out my last week in another blog.

You can keep up with me on my Facebook The Running Stan page.  You can also follow me on my Strava page.