Tapering Can Help You PR at Your Next Half or Full Marathon. Here's How to Do It

You’ve finally made it through your longest run during half or full marathon training. Now, it’s time to taper. Tempted as you may be to overlook or oversimplify this final stage of your pre-race plan, don’t. A proper running taper requires strategy and serious discipline, but when done correctly, it can make all the difference on race day. 

To ensure you show up to the starting line well-rested and at the top of your game, we asked experts including Peloton instructor Matt Wilpers for advice on how to taper correctly ahead of your half or full marathon.

What Is Tapering in Running?

“Tapering is when we start to dial back the training volume and intensity to allow the body to recover and shed excess fatigue from the previous periods of overload in order to perform with the best possible form at a specified point in time,” Matt says. 

To be clear: Training doesn’t come to a complete halt during a taper. “Instead, training dials back to something that the athlete can more easily recover from, so that they can also recover from deeper levels of fatigue acquired in previous weeks of training,” Matt explains.

Ideally, a taper allows you to go into a race feeling rested and energized while retaining the fitness gains you’ve made in the months leading up to the race. After all, the weeks preceding an endurance competition aren’t the time to build additional strength or speed. 

“I always equate a good taper to the final weeks before a big exam in school,” Matt says. “The bulk of the work is done. It’s just a matter of reviewing and staying fresh on the content without overtaxing yourself.”

The Benefits of Tapering Before Half and Full Marathons

Scaling back mileage ahead of a half or full marathon can be scary (and seem counterintuitive) to many people—especially those who haven’t tapered before. But this last leg of training is an essential piece of the pre-race puzzle. Here are a few of the reasons you should taper, whether you’re running your first or fifteenth race.

Allowing Your Body to Recover

Because running is a high-impact sport that takes a toll on your bones, joints, brain, and muscles, tapering works as a form of recovery. “The purpose of a taper is to help runners recover from the higher training loads that happen throughout the training cycle and maximize their physiological adaptations from training,” Hayley Russell, PhD, an associate professor and the department chair of health and exercise science at Gustavus Adolphus College, says. 

Further research is needed on the physical benefits of tapering, however Peter Hosick, PhD, an exercise physiologist and associate professor of exercise science and physical education at Montclair State University, says it can replenish glycogen stores, which get depleted during vigorous exercise such as long runs, and heal running-induced microdamage. Plus, Russell adds that tapering can help reduce joint inflammation ahead of race day.

Giving Your Brain a Break

Training for an endurance race is physically taxing, of course, but it can also take a mental toll on you. As someone tapering ahead of their first marathon, I’ve found that running fewer miles helps me think about my pace less frequently than I did during my long runs. 

“Mentally, tapering provides more time to focus on the key event coming vs. just making it through more grueling training sessions,” Matt says. “Also, with the body healing and feeling stronger comes the mental confidence and ability to focus.”

Improving Race-Day Performance

The main purpose of tapering is to improve your race-day performance, and as Hosick points out, “Research shows that a properly employed taper can improve endurance performance by approximately one to three percent.” In a race where every second counts, that small improvement can be enough to hit your PR.

If you time your taper correctly, you’ll reach your “peak” on race day, meaning you feel rested but still reap the physical benefits of your intense training. “When the athlete is in this state, they are able to perform at their best and achieve optimal performance results,” Matt explains.

Instructions On How to Taper Properly

There’s not one right way to taper. Just like the overall race-training process, tapering varies from individual to individual. As Matt points out, your taper strategy depends on a number of factors such as the length of the race, your goals, and your training method up to that point.

Runners typically start to taper the week after their longest training run. “In a good taper, you maintain much of your same training schedule but you gradually reduce the training volume and intensity over the course of your taper,” Matt says.  

However, your taper runs shouldn’t all be a breeze. “While there is a shift away from volume and intensity towards shorter and easier runs, you still want to maintain some intensity to stay sharp and to run at your desired pace on race day,” Matt adds.

How to Taper for a Marathon

A typical marathon taper lasts approximately three weeks. Matt says if you start a taper more than 21 days prior to the race, “the decrease in training volume and intensity starts to more significantly impact fitness.”

During the first week of your taper, your long run should be shorter—about 60 percent—of the previous long run,” Russell says. For example, if your longest run is 18 miles, then your long run during the first week of your taper would be 10 miles. “Your pace should remain the same as usual. Don’t try to speed up as you run less miles,” Russell says.

The second week of your taper has more of an emphasis on rest, according to Russell. Your mileage should be about half of your highest weekly mileage. So if the most you ran during a week of training was 36 miles, you’d run a total of 18 miles throughout this week. 

The third week of your taper concludes the day before the race. “Early in the week, you might throw in a marathon-paced short run and some strides to boost your confidence,” Russell says. The key to week three is resisting the urge to cram in too much, she adds.

How to Taper for a Half Marathon 

Overall, tapering for a half marathon is similar to tapering for a full marathon, but the plans do differ slightly. Whereas a marathon taper is usually two to three weeks before a race, a half marathon taper is often one to two weeks before the event, Matt explains. 

You can also push your taper runs a little more if you’re a more experienced endurance racer preparing for a half marathon. “Since, in theory, the half marathon athlete is maintaining a higher intensity, the relative intensity they use for their taper workout can be slightly higher than that of someone preparing for a marathon,” Hosick says. Of course, you should always listen to your body throughout training and adjust accordingly.

Key Reminders Before Race Day

As you wind down your taper, here are some key reminders to keep in mind before stepping through the marathon corrals. 

Nourish Your Body

You can hit all of your running benchmarks throughout training, but if you’re not getting proper nourishment leading up to race day, you probably won’t show up as your best self. 

Use your training runs to try different types of fuel ahead of the big day. “The best strategy is to [fuel up] early and often, but knowing how you handle carbs and fluid intake is crucial—and not something to figure out during a race,” Hosick says.

Moreover, says Russell, some runners report that they’re not very hungry during tapering because their training volume isn’t as high. “It’s important to keep nourishing your body with carbohydrates, proteins, and fats even if you aren’t hungry,” she adds.

Get Enough Sleep

As you cut down mileage during your taper, you expend far less energy than you did at the height of your training—that might lead you to have difficulty falling asleep. Even if that’s the case, Russell says you should prioritize rest leading up to race day.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults get a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night, and if you don’t get enough rest, you might pay the price during the race. A systematic review of 31 studies published in the European Journal of Sport Science found that sleep deprivation can have a substantial negative impact on endurance performance. So, don’t overlook the importance of proper shuteye leading up to your big day. 

Stick to Your Training Gear

There’s one statement runners hear over and over during training: Nothing new on race day. That advice applies to tapering as well. Because taper runs are so close to the competition, they aren’t the right time to experiment with different shoes, nutrition, vests, headphones, or any other new gear.

Get In the Right Mindset

Experienced runners understand that the sport is both physical and mental. In order for your body to perform at its peak, it’s absolutely essential that you’re in the right mindset throughout training, from your first run to your final day of tapering. The good news is that by tapering, you’re giving your mind and body time to recoup and setting yourself up for success.