Day 60: Biting the Hair of the DOMS Dog

DOMS: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. It means being sore as much or more the second or later day after a strenuous ordeal than the first. And I got it. Yes, I was tired and sore yesterday, but this morning it was really bad.

But... I wanted to get my ten miles in, and something of slight substance wouldn't hurt. Oh. Yes, it would.

But I did it anyway. Too bad it was only on the mill.

Day 59: Daily Double

I don't always run ten miles, but when I do, it's because of GVRAT. And also due to GVRAT, I usually do. I didn't today however, but I came a little close to 10K. And it wasn't too pretty, either.

Tomorrow's another day. Next week starts the big push.

Day 58: 60 on his 60th

Danny Boy starts running with his friend Larry Orwin at 4:00 AM. He used to run this early at times, but not lately. Complicating factors include the consideration that Larry lives near Chagrin Falls - fifty minutes away - and that DB needed to get up well before that 3:00 AM driving start time. It takes time, you see, to consume 2 gallons of coffee.

But now that he's moving, things are pretty good. Larry is having a birthday today, and it's a special one. His plans are to run 60 kilometers (37.2 miles) to celebrate his 60th year of existence on this planet. Danny Boy feels honored to be invited, and he's decided to try to run the entire distance with Larry. Try is a keyword here because it's been quite a few years since he's run so far. Larry, an accomplished ultrarunner, not so much.

The pace is comfortable for Danny Boy. He'd been a little concerned about that, but it's fine. Larry wants to walk the uphills, and Danny Boy is fine with that. It starts to rain, hard at times, and Danny Boy is fine with this as well. In fact, it feels good.

After a couple of seven-plus mile loops, Larry and Danny Boy are joined by mutual running friend Jim O'Connor. Jim will run the remaining 23 miles with Larry and DB. A while later, Larry's wife Christine joins the growing group for a loop. The rain tapers off, and it's a pretty morning. The loop that Larry selected takes the runners on country roads, and through the village of Chagrin Falls.

Finally, at around thirty miles, it's time for the last loop. The rain has stopped. Danny Boy abides. Our runners refuel at Larry's aid station for the final time (he set up a tent with water, gels, and snacks). Danny Boy has done just fine so far, but he's a little tired from all those miles. Larry and Jim abide by not running too super fast (perhaps they are a little bit tuckered out as well).

It works out just peachy: 37.2 miles in 6:36 for a 10:40 pace. The group is joined by Jim Heun (and Christine of course) for a cookout afterward. It has been what Danny Boy would call a good day.

After the finish. L to R: Jim Heun, Danny Boy, Larry Orwin, Jim O'Connor

Day 57: As Bad as it Gets

Forget for the moment that I've said this before. Still pretending that you've never heard it from me? Good. Here goes. Running can't possibly get any worse than this.

After a couple really good days early this week, I've now had three stinkers in a row. And today's was the worst. It was an ultra-shuffle from sleepy start to tired finish. And when the pace is that bad, you just want to quit early, which of course I did.

Back to caffeine for tomorrow's planned long run. We'll see what that does.

Day 56: Coffee on the Run

Before a morning run, I'll often have a cup or two of joe. All the other times, I have three or four. Yes, I'm hooked.

In order to keep logging GVRAT miles, I am now streaking; running each and every day for around two months. And I am pretty sure that I had coffee or some other form of caffeine for each and every one of those 60 or so runs. Except today.

How did that work out for me, you ask? The results, as you might prognosticate, were as predicted; it was slow, and I also failed to get into double-digit territory.

Tomorrow may possibly be more of the same. I'm doing a mini-taper for the planned long run on Saturday.

Day 55: Miles for Miles' Sake

GVRAT will do that to you: make you get those miles when you don't feel like getting those miles. Nine-plus miles today, at ultra-shuffle pace.

I have a long run planned for Saturday, so maybe I can consider today's run as part of my taper. Yeah, that's it!

Day 54: Buy 600, get 200 free!

01-200 - These are the free meters. It seems like I can run fast, yet not feel that I'm working too hard.
201-400 - Uh-oh. This $h!t is getting real. Very real.
401-600 - I am working way too hard. Have to slow down a bit, making this the slowest part. What other choice is there?
601-800 - It's tough, but I absolutely have to pick it back up. And I do. Hey - I can see the finish line!

Now repeat all that nine more times.

Today's Yasso track workout went well. The important thing is consistency, and you don't get that without sustainability. With all ten 800s between 3:38 and 3:48, I'll call this a good to great run.

Rainbow at the track today

Day 53: On a good day

On a good day, I will be able to log a Something of Substance run. Like maybe, for instance, a three-mile tempo run. On a great day, I will be able to log something of greater substance, like perhaps a longer tempo run or maybe even two three-mile tempo trots. I've had some great days, but none very recently.

Today was a good day. During the first five-mile segment, I did get my three miles in at about 8:10 pace. It wasn't easy, but I made it.

After a pit stop, I was back out for a second five. Would I be able to do a second tempo trot? As soon as I started out, I knew it wasn't going to happen, however. Not today.

Today was not a great day.

Terrific Tapering for Marathons and Ultras

This is an article that was published in a 2003 edition of Marathon & Beyond.

Terrific Tapering for Marathons and Ultras

by Dan Horvath

With my latest marathon fast approaching, it was time to start planning my taper. OK, it was past time to start such planning, but better late than never. My usual methodology is to look through my training log to determine what kind of tapering I’d done in the past. If I’m really ambitious, I’ll compare different tapering techniques, along with the associated race results to try to figure out what had seemed to work.

This time would be different. Yes, I would still look back in my ‘ole logs, but I also decided to do some actual research to see what the experts say. In addition, I was curious about what I could find out about tapering for ultras too. I’ve looked these sorts of things up before, but it’s been quite a while, and there is some new material out there nowadays.

It turned out that there is a lot of new material and studies out there. Several studies yield extremely useful and interesting information. In addition, I was able to refer to several recent running related books to glean even more information. It appears that even an old dog like me can still learn a few tricks. If you’re creating your training plan for your next marathon or ultra, or just thinking about your next Big One, read on.

The First Commandment(s) of Tapering

I have friends who, perhaps only half-jokingly, say that they’ve been tapering for some number of years for the upcoming marathon or ultra. To those folks, I have this to say: if you haven’t done the training, the best taper in the world is not going to help you. Yes, this ought to go without saying, but I’m probably as guilty as anyone of thinking: “I’ve had a tip-top taper, and therefore I should run a great marathon”. There’s just a bit more to it.

Furthermore, the tapering period is not the time to introduce anything new to your training. There is general agreement that activities such as weight-training, speedwork, massage and stretching should be incorporated into almost any training schedule. If any of them haven’t been used, however, the tapering period is definitely not the time to start. This even applies to the massage and stretching.

Why Taper?

Tapering is a reduction of training quality, quantity, or both for some period immediately prior to an athletic event. The amount of reduction, and the time period for that reduction vary greatly depending on the event, the individual, and whom you ask.

For the purposes of this discussion, the assumption will be that you will want to optimize your marathon or ultra effort to the fullest extent. Yes, getting there is and should be half the fun. If you don’t actually enjoy your training (at least for the most part), then you should strongly consider other activities. That said, training, for most of us, is still not an end, but a means to an end. This is the case no matter how much joy we derive from it. As important as it may be to run well in practice, it’s imperative (or so it seems to us) to do so for that Big Event. Most of us don’t want to leave our best performances in the training world; we want them to occur during our marathon or ultra.

Training is a good thing. Each workout will generally increase your fitness to some slight degree. The accumulative affect of months of these single workouts will make you fit enough to participate in an endurance event. But training is also hard. It takes a toll on your body such that your ability to run hard on a given day is negatively impacted by the affects of your recent workouts. The effects of fatigue on performance are well documented. In order to run your best, you need to maximize your fitness, and be fully rested. The way to do accomplish this for a race is to train hard, and then taper.

Tapering works. Numerous studies, including (Houmard et al., 1994), (Mujika, 1998) and (Shepley et al., 1992) have proven that endurance athletes who tapered prior to an endurance event performed significantly better than those who did not. In fact, the affect of tapering on performance has been shown to be between 1 and 6 percent. A marathon runner should expect the improvement to be between 3 and 5 percent (Pfitzinger and Douglass, 2001). Four percent for a 3-hour marathoner equates to an improvement of over 7 minutes. For a 4-hour marathoner, the 4 percent improvement would be mean 10 minutes. Ultra runners can also expect significant improvements, although there are fewer studies that can be applied so directly. (Noakes, 1991) provides good anecdotal information on tapering for ultras, showing that it worked for certain individuals at the Comrades Marathon. There can be no doubt that a good taper will do more for your race performance than almost anything else you can think of during those last couple weeks of training.

Thus the reason to taper is straightforward: to give your body a rest so that you are able to perform as close as possible to your potential during the race. The only real question, then, is how, and how much?

How to Taper

If tapering works so well, why not take it all the way? Why not stop running completely for some period of time prior to a race? Houmard and Shepley studied the effects of no training at all for one week prior to an event. The results indicated that there was no improvement as a result of such a drastic taper. In other words, tapering completely (i.e. 100% reduction) is about the same as not tapering at all. So some training is still necessary leading up to a race.

How long should a tapering period be? Most studies examine a taper period of 7 to 14 days. It appears that many training experts and coaches recommend 14 to 21 days for marathon and ultra tapers. The approach appears to be such that generally, the longer the event, the longer the taper. This applies to distances up to and including the marathon. Although there is very little information in print about this, my own feeling is that additional tapering for distances beyond 26.2 miles will not necessarily yield better results. In other words, in terms of the length of the period and the percentage of reduction of mileage, you should taper for an ultra about the same as you would for a marathon.

The way in which a tapering period is designed is referred to as a tapering model. Different studies examined different tapering models. The three basic models are:

1. Step reduction: a drastic reduction of training volume (say, 50% of normal) at the onset of the tapering period, followed by the continuation of this volume for the entire taper period.
2. Linear or Exponential reduction: the amount of reduction is gradually increased from the beginning to the end of the tapering period. For example, for a three week taper, the reduction in mileage may be 20% for the first week, 40% the second week, and 60% for the third. This reduction of an additional 20% each week is a linear reduction; exponential reduction may be more on the order of 10%, 40%, 80%, where the amount of reduction increases over time.
3. A Combination of Step Reduction and Additional Linear or Exponential Reduction: this is an attempt to incorporate the features of the former two models. The runner may reduce mileage by about 40% at the start of the taper, then gradually reduce the volume even further over the tapering period. In this case, an example would be a 50% reduction for the second week and 60% for the third.

(Bannister, et al. 1999) found that an exponential model worked better than a step model. Other studies appear to favor the Combination model. Many of the noted studies are of swimmers and triathletes. Most coaches and other writers recommend an exponential or linear model for distance runners.

How hard should your taper training be? Many of the studies show that while training volume should be decreased, training intensity should not. The Shepley study in particular showed that a taper of low-volume and high intensity was superior to one of moderate volume and low intensity. So doing only easy jogging for two weeks prior to your big event is not enough. Assuming that you’ve already been doing some speedwork, you should continue doing it through the tapering period, except for the last few days. This is not to say that your two to three week taper should consist entirely of speedwork. The best approach is to use the same percentage of high-intensity running during the taper period as during the previous training period. For example, say your pre-taper training consisted of 6 one-mile intervals at 10K pace and a 4-mile tempo run at half-marathon pace per week, out of 60 overall weekly miles. The 10 speedy miles make up 17% of total weekly miles. For a 2 week taper in which you’re reducing mileage by 40% the first week and 60% the second week, you may do 3 one-mile intervals and a 3-mile tempo run the first week (6 speedy miles out of 36), and 2 one-mile intervals and a 2-mile tempo run the second week (4 speedy miles out of 24). You’ll be tempted to do more volume of speedwork, or to do it at a faster pace than usual. Resist! Although it’s important to train how you feel, and to design your training to fit your individual needs, you need to keep your eyes on the prize.

Cross training should also be reduced during your taper. Since the types of cross training activities vary, the best approach is to once again, follow the percentage rule as much as possible. Resistance training in particular should be eliminated during the final week or two (Bloch, 1993).

And what about long runs? The percentage rule applies here as well. The length of the weekly long run should, in general, be reduced by about the same percentage as that for the weekly mileage. For example, say your normal weekly long run is 20 miles, and your weekly mileage is 60 miles. Applying a reduction of 40% for the first week would require a long run of about 12 miles with overall miles of 36 miles. Applying a 60% reduction, we get a long run of 8 miles and overall miles of 24. Once again, the percentage of long run miles with respect to total miles remains constant.

What’s Worked for Me

Having done the research about what’s supposed to work, I would now examine my own data to determine what’s worked for me. I realized right away that examining just the marathon and ultra tapers wouldn’t tell the whole story here; there are too many other variables, not the least of which is whether I had trained enough.

What I could do, however, is study the characteristics of the tapers for my best marathon efforts. (I’m leaving my ultras out of the equation; I don’t feel that I’ve done enough of them well enough to acquire adequate data.) So out of over 60 marathons, I picked the five that I consider to be the most successful, and then gathered information about the tapers.

I examined the three-week taper period just prior to the events. In order to calculate an average weekly mileage, I used the miles run per week for the previous 9 weeks prior to the taper. For each of the three weeks leading up to the marathon, I’ve listed my total miles for that week, my long run at the start of that week, any tune-up races done at the start of the week, and any speedwork done during the week.

I learned a few things about my tapering:

1. I used to be a halfway decent runner.
2. In terms of mileage, I tapered much less than many of the experts recommend. I never tapered at all for the 3^rd week prior to the race. In fact, my mileage for that week was always higher than the average for the previous nine. It was, however, close to the weeks immediately prior to the taper. The 2^nd and 1^st weeks prior were on the order of 80% and 40% of my average training mileage.
3. My long runs appear to be all over the map. Generally, I ran very long (more than 20 miles) three weeks before the race, then fairly long, but usually shorter, two weeks out, then shorter still (9 to 15 miles) the week before the race.
4. For almost all of my successful marathons I’ve run a tune-up race during one or more of the previous weekends. It was usually a 5-Mile or 10K, but there were a few 10-Mile races. Don’t try that at home.
5. There was a great deal of speedwork for each of the three weeks. Although I do recommend continuation of speedwork, I wouldn’t advise doing this much.

Would I have run better if I had tapered more? What if I had run less for that third week before the race – could I have knocked a minute off my time? On the other hand, I have friends who taper even relatively less than I. They appear to do just fine. Could I do as well by tapering less?

It’s simply impossible to say. The best I can do is to postulate that, for these instances, the taper probably didn’t hurt me much. And that may be the most any individual will ever be able to say, without engaging in some extensive research involving many more runners.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are the marathon efforts where I’ve done more poorly than expected. For at least some of these instances, I felt that I had been well trained, and then went on to have a wonderful taper. So what went wrong? Perhaps it was something else, such as the weather, lack of sleep, or the phase of the moon.

The bottom line is that a good taper won’t guarantee you a good marathon or ultra performance. A good taper may, in some instances, prevent a stinker. Just don’t try a bad taper (that is, no taper at all). The evidence shows that for most runners, this won’t work. In any event, it’s not worth the risk.

Sidebar – Dan’s Taper Data for Five Successful Marathons

What You Should Do

Based on the research, the writings of coaches and other experts, and (just a bit) on my own data, I have compiled the following recommendations and schedule. These are only guidelines; you should actually design your own tapering schedule that will work for you.

With 3 weeks to go, you should run about 90 percent of your pre-taper mileage and effort; with 2 weeks to go, do about 60 percent, and during your final training week, you should only run about 40 percent of your usual distance and effort. By “distance and effort” I mean the total miles run during those tapering weeks, the long run distance, the amount of speedwork, etc.

For the three days immediately prior to your event, you should do very little training. You want your muscles to be as well-rested as possible. This is not to say that you should abstain from running completely for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday prior to your Sunday marathon or ultra. Even at this late date, you may want to loosen up by running a few easy miles on perhaps two of the three days.

There are several non-running considerations for those last few days as well. Stretch. Get a massage. Load up on carbohydrates. Study the course. Visualize your effort and eventual success.

Remember that you’re an individual. I know I am, because my wife keeps reminding me. What works for one person, or even a group of people, may not work for you. As an experiment of one, you will ultimately have to find out on your own how best to taper for you. Use the information presented here as a starting point, and add your own refinements.

Sidebar – A Schedule for Your Terrific Taper

The data and ideas provided by the sources noted in the accompanying article have been consolidated to create this taper schedule. Although it’s applied to runners who average 75, 55 or 45 miles per training week, think of this chart as a template that can be tailored and applied to the tail end of any marathon or ultra training schedule.

Following the recommendations in the What You Should Do section, the schedule uses a 10 percent reduction in mileage for the first week of the taper (90% of original average weekly training mileage); 40 percent reduction (60% of original) for the second week, and 60 percent reduction (40% of original) for the final week before the race. The percentages are each reductions of the original average weekly mileage. The schedule also includes some speedwork, marathon pace runs and two weekends with a tune-up race and/or tempo run. I do not recommend doing two races; you should do a race one of the weekends and a tempo run the other.

The schedule makes the following assumptions:

1. That you have followed some sort of training schedule prior to the tapering period. In other words, you’ve put in the miles, according to some plan, to get to this point.
2. That you have tracked, and therefore have some idea of, your average weekly mileage. Use the average number of miles run per week for the previous 8 to 10 weeks of your marathon training. If you log your running by time instead of miles, you can convert the data by using your pace per mile.
3. That your training has included at least some speedwork. If not, don’t start now; Simply run the stated distance at a brisk pace.
4. That you’ve been doing some of your training at your anticipated marathon pace, and you have an idea what that pace should be. If not, consider examining your pace for your longest runs.
5. That you do some shorter tune-up races, and that you’re not averse to doing one during the final three weeks. Don’t do any races longer than 10K; you won’t have time to entirely recover from anything longer. If you haven’t included any shorter races in your training, you should, once again, follow the “don’t try anything new” rule and not start now. If you decide to break the rule for this instance, don’t run the race all-out; just run comfortably fast.

Sidebar – References

Banister, E. W., Carter, J. B., & Zarkadas, P. C. 1999. Training theory and taper: Validation in triathlon athletes. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 79, pp.182-191.

Benyo, R. and Henderson, J. 2002. Running Encyclopedia. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL

Bloch, G. B. 1993. How to Train for and Run Your Best Marathon. Fireside, New York, NY

Daniels, J. 1998. Daniels’ Running Formula. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL

Galloway, J. 1984. Galloway’s Book of Running. Shelter Publications, Bolinas, CA

Higdon, H. 1997. How to Train. Rodale Press, Inc., Emmaus, PA

Houmard J.A., Scott BK, Justice CL, Chenier TC. 1994, May. The effects of taper on performance in distance runners. Med Sci Sports Exerc;26(5):624-31.

Mujika, I. 1998. The influence of training characteristics and tapering on

adaptation in highly trained individuals: a review. International Journal of

Sports Medicine, v.19, pp.439-446

Mujika I., Chatard, J. C., Busso, T., Geyssant, A., Barale, F., Lacoste, L. 1992, Feb. Physiological effects of tapering in highly trained athletes. Journal of Applied Physiology;72(2):706-11.

Noakes, T. 1991. Lore of Running. Leisure Press, Champaign, IL

Pfitzinger, P. and Douglass, S. 2001. Advanced Marathoning. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL

Shepley, B., MacDougall, J. D., Cipriano, N., Sutton, J. R., Tarnopolsky, M.A., Coates G. 1992, Feb. Physiological effects of tapering in highly trained athletes. Journal of Applied Physiology;72(2):706-11