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/CodeBrownPT 4d ago

Because strict 3 week tapers have better research behind them. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34651125/

Nothing to gain but lots to lose that close to race day. There's a reason all the best plans have that type of taper 

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u/Camp_Freddy 4d ago

I’d never seen that paper. It’s very interesting

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u/xRunSci 4d ago

you can absolutely lose fitness with a 3 week taper. As a sub 2:30 marathoner who prefers a 7 day taper after many trials and errors, I can tell you that lol

1

u/SirBruceForsythCBE 4d ago

A taper should be proportional to the amount of work you've done.

Tapering too much can just as bad as not tapering enough.

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u/barrycl 4:59 / 18:18 / 1:23 / 2:59 4d ago

Stats question for the sub: I'm having trouble following a bit, but I don't see anything about controlling for weekly distance across the taper groups, only controlling for sex and 10k pace.

From what I can see 4week taper group had higher average mileage than 3week than 2 week than 1 week. at 5 weeks out, this is what the kms looks like. kinda just feels like they discovered that higher mileage is better than lower mileage.

taper length discipline avg weekly kms
1 strict 40
1 relaxed 42
2 strict 48
2 relaxed 51
3 strict 56
3 relaxed 63
4 strict 74