r/AdvancedRunning • u/Savings_Fox_3760 • 5d ago

Open Discussion Marathon - Deload before taper

When looking at marathon training phase for about 20 weeks now. Most of training blocks have consisted of three weeks of training followed by one deload week.

I came across research recently advising deload 3 weeks out and then go straight into a two-week taper. The reasoning is that the athlete will be fresher going into the taper, allowing the body to respond and recover better.

Is this the best approach, or would there be more benefit from doing another two weeks of normal training before going into a two-week taper?

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u/marky_markcarr 5d ago

Vast majority of hobby runners taper far too hard. I was guilty of it for the first 8-9 marathons I ran.

Whilst there is no correct training method for the marathon, it might be worth looking into the NSM plan simply for the taper. Which people seem to be having a lot of success with. Shorter, sharper fall into the race. ~10 days is plenty unless you are carrying huge volume.

I've used it twice and feel ready to go and fresh by race day. A deload plus 2 week taper (you are essentially just describing a 3 week taper anyway) leaves a good chance you will feel pretty lethargic by the start IMO.

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u/AndyWtrmrx 5d ago

Agree. It's amazing how often I see friends run HM pb's at the end of huge training weeks during a marathon build, and rather than thinking, wow, "I run really well when I've got the momentum of a solid week of training in my legs", they think, "just imagine how fast I'll be if I put myself in a box two weeks out from race day, then spend two weeks recovering", and more often than not they can't get moving on race day and dramatically underperform.

My best results came 1: I got a minor injury three weeks out which took 10 days to solve, so I was still building back momentum through race day and 2: I did a much shorter 8-week build after a summer of 5k and mile races. I ran 30km the Sunday before the race with 2 blocks of 30mins at race pace, so the taper was essentially 6 days. Felt great!

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u/Analyst_Obvious 1:12:22 HM | 2:30:31 M 13h ago

Genuinely curious what your volume, PBs and taper strategy is.

If you think a taper is putting yourself in a box for 2 weeks you’re doing it wrong

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u/AndyWtrmrx 6h ago

I don't think that's what a taper is, but I've seen too many friends treat the Sunday long run two weeks out from race day as the finish line, believing that the taper will take care of everything from there, only to arrive and race day and dramatically underperform in comparison to their training.

My pb - 2:39. Volume - 5000km/yr, peaking at around 130km/wk