Taper Advice

[WVUFan]

On Sunday I am running the Pittsburgh Marathon which will be my third marathon and first outside of WDW. For Disney, I never had any problem with the taper. It was actually really nice to have lighter weeks during Christmas and New Year's week, and then it was packing and traveling down.

The last two weeks have been bad and this week is worse! I really just want to get out and run- especially since we are finally having perfect running weather and it is light at 6 a.m. I'm not hungry, can't sleep, and am irritable. Are these things normal or is it just me? Is there anything I can do to make this week more bearable?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[FFigawi]

That's perfectly normal. If you want to make things more bearable, go out once or twice for a short quality run. I always do a few runs of 3-5 miles the week before a marathon just to stay sharp.

 

[SAHDad]

Those are classic symptoms of "taper madness". (It also makes one prone to buying completely extraneous items at the race expo, but that's another story.)

I don't stop running during a taper, but I do cut back, running 3 miles instead of 5-6 each day, and the weekend long runs top out at about an hour. The last two weeks or so before a marathon is a bad time to do speedwork or a hard hill workout - you want to do short and easy runs.

 

[WVUFan]

Thanks for your advice! I have a short run tomorrow and hope that it will help!