RunningAHEAD - Topic: Question about taper with Pfitz

mark-bixler

posted: 10/1/2008 at 9:46 AM

I know this is a long way off for me but I wanted to see if this taper from Pfitz's 24/55 plan sounds good: The last four weeks countdown like this: Longs runs of 21, 17, 16, 12, race week Total Weekly Mileage of 51, 47, 43, 32, race week I saw a plan recently that had the last 20-miler 3 weeks out instead of four. Will thismake a difference or is this a pretty good taper? Thanks.

Listen. Yeah, it's gonna hurt some. That's the marathon business.

But here's the thing. When it starts to get intense, that's not time to panic. This is what you wanted to happen. It means that all the training, all the miles, all the wakeups, all the cold, all the wet, all the sleep-deprived days and all the shit you've done to yourself over the last 6 plus months is finally about to pay off. It means you've put yourself where you wanted to be. You've given yourself an opportunity that very few will ever have. You've given yourself a chance.

Now finish it.

DoppleBock

posted: 10/1/2008 at 10:17 AM

Does not Pfitz give you a taper plan? I have the book at home, but if you are trusting the training plan for the other 20 weeks, I would follow it all the way. What you wrote sounds reasonable What works best for each person is very personal - I experiment with training and taper each marathon - I keep tweaking. Good luck

Long dead ... But my stench lingers !

Berner

posted: 10/1/2008 at 10:31 AM
modified: 10/1/2008 at 10:32 AM

Unless you have a good reason to do so, I don't see why you would change Pfitz's plan. There is no magic to doing a 20 miler 3 weeks out versus 4. More importantly, your hard workout 3 weeks out is the 8-15K tuneup race on Saturday. Were you going to skip that? That's an important workout from both a speed and race preparation standpoint. And if you run that race at full effort (which you are supposed to do) I think you will find the 17 miler on the next day sufficiently challenging without adding another three miles to it. But when that day comes, if you want to make it a 20, and if, based on your training to date you feel you can complete 20 without unnecessary risk, and if you have no lingering soreness from the tune-up race (or equivalent time trial), then you are free to go for it. Having run Pfitz's 55 mile plan previously, I will predict that you'll be more than content to stick to the 17 as written, but everyone is different.

How To Run a Marathon: Step 1 - start running. There is no Step 2.

mikeymike

posted: 10/1/2008 at 11:00 AM

Planning the minute details of your taper before you've even gotten into your trianing seems like it could cause problems, but anyway... Three weeks out from a marathon is a great time to do a tune-up race and I vote for the longer the better. I know the Pfitz plan has an 8k-15k race in there but I think even a HM or 30k, if run intelligently, can be even better, and I know Pfitz himself has endorsed this change at times. So my first choice would be to do a race that weekend and, if it's a HM or shorter and/or the race is on Sunday, do enough warmup cooldown mileage to get to 17 ish miles or, as the plan states, race Saturday and do the 17 miler the day after the race. Either way. My second choice, if you don't race that weekend for whatever reason, would be to do a 20 ish miler with a fast finish.

Runners run

Question about taper with Pfitz (Read 423 times)