As marathon race day approaches it’s a good idea to reduce the intensity and amount of your training. This is called tapering.
Train less
About three weeks before the race you should start to wind down your marathon training schedule a bit.
That means no more really long runs.
If you just keep your training ticking over then you will preserve your fitness levels and help build up reserves of energy for the race itself.
The aim of tapering is to get you to the start line feeling full of beans and in the best condition you can possibly achieve.
Diet during tapering
You’ll need to think about your diet a bit during a tapering period.
You won’t be burning up as many carbohydrates as when you were training more.
So you’ll need to reduce your carb intake a bit for a while, before ramping up the amount of carbs you eat in the couple of days immediately before the race..
Many runners like to avoid fatty foods even more than usual in the couple of weeks before a race. This is simply to avoid having to carry a pound or two of excess baggage around the 26.2 miles.
In the immediate run up to the race, alcohol can be a really bad idea because of its dehydrating effects, so you may want to stop boozing for a while too.
