Tag Archives: Taper

The final countdown – 7 days to go.

It’s the final countdown…

And a reminder of the classic Europe song from 1986…

This time next week it will be over for a few, nearly over for others and a little to still go for a lot.  The London Marathon 2012 – the year of the London Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  What a great year to run 26.2 miles around this amazing city in the biggest charity fund raising event there is with 40k other people!

The training’s nearly done – 15, 17 or 21 weeks hard running.  Now in the final taper stages.  Stretching lots.  Sleeping nicely.  Eating well with a few extra carbs.  And all getting ready for next Sunday – 22nd April.  With a visit to the London Marathon Expo this week to pick up your number and bits.  It’s all getting exciting!

I still need to remind myself what time it starts on Sunday and then recap on plans to get up, eat and get up to London with Mrs. Noble and the kids and my mum & dad in-law as the Noble support crew.

The plan for me for the final 7 days looks like this…

  • Sunday – easy morning karate session; done without injury.
  • Monday – rest day with stretching and core exercises.
  • Tuesday – 6 miles at marathon pace (mp).
  • Wednesday – 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles at 30 seconds faster than mp , 1 mile cool down.
  • Thursday – TBC maybe a slow 4 miles.
  • Friday – rest day with stretching and core exercises.
  • Saturday – 2 very easy miles just to keep legs moving.
  • Sunday – it’s race day!

And still going for the last week of charity donations for Whizz-Kidz.  It all helps with the great work that they do for the children that they look after.  All donations still very very gratefully received – just go to my Just Giving page.

Tapering isn’t easy

Never thought I’d say this but the tapering part of the training – even week 1 of it – isn’t easy.  Having been increasing weekly distances for the last few months now and getting new PB’s for different distances, pulling back and not pushing yourself is hard.

The 10 miler I did on Thursday – with 4 x 1 mile intervals – was a whole 4 minutes slower than the last time.  Very frustrating but it was meant to be that slow – and I had to keep telling myself that.

A reminder of why tapering is so important…

Even harder this coming week – only 24 miles planned.  And less than 2 weeks until the big day tomorrow – London Marathon 2012 on April 22nd.

Time for the taper

Last long long run done last week – 21 miles – and a grand total last week of 46 miles.  With only 18 days left until the big day, it’s all about reducing the number of miles now and letting the body recover slightly.

Aiming to cut back by about 1/3 on miles this week, and then the same over the next 2 weeks.  So far this week have done 1 x 12 miles and 1 x 10 miles, both at marathon pace and 10 miles planned today – with 4 x 1 mile intervals – so 32 in total.  Next week some speed work (and about 20 miles total) and then the final week a few easy light runs (about 10 miles total).

Nice article here from the BBC on tapering – from 2005 but all valid.

Not long now!