Tapering (Arriving Fresh on Race Day)

What a taper does

The fitness you race on was built in the weeks before. A workout takes days to turn into fitness, so work in the last days cannot improve your race, but it can leave you tired. The taper takes the fatigue away and keeps just enough work to stay sharp.

So you cut volume and keep the rest. Keep most of your run days and some hard sessions, shorter. A taper is lighter training, and it is not a recovery week.

How long

Chris McClung and James Dods, who coach recreational road runners, start the taper 3 weeks before a marathon, 2 before a half marathon and about 1 week before a 5K or 10K. Greg McMillan prefers a shorter marathon taper, Luke Humphrey's beginner marathon plan tapers for 10 days, and Steve Magness tapers a 5K for 7 to 10 days.

An experienced runner can try a shorter taper at the next race and keep it only if the race goes better. If a taper works for you, copy it for the next race of that distance. It is the one thing worth copying exactly.

What to cut and what to keep

Greg McMillan trims each run by 10 to 20 minutes and keeps the run days and one or two workouts a week.

• Volume: step it down every week. At 40 to 60 miles a week, one way is to take 1 mile off every run except the long run in the first week of the taper, 2 in the second and 3 in the third, and to cut the long run by more.
• Run days: keep most of them. If you run six days a week, keep six, because stopping runs or adding days off is the big mistake.
• Hard sessions: keep them and make them smaller, with fewer repeats and shorter pieces. For a marathon, for example, 800s at 10K pace in the first week, 2 x 2 miles at race pace two weeks out and 3 x 1 mile at race pace in race week. For a 5K, a short set of 200s that start at race pace and finish faster a few days out, hill sprints early in race week and strides the day before. Work this close to the race builds no fitness, so choose what makes you feel sharp.
• The last long run: make your biggest one the start of the taper, about three weeks before a marathon, and let the long runs shrink after it.
• Strength: keep the sessions, lighter, and in race week turn them into mobility. Do not lift the day before a hard workout or the long run.

Race week

Race week will not be normal, so keep everything else normal: your sleep, your food and your daily routine. Start no house project because you are tapering, and try nothing new, no food, drink, shoe or gear.

If you are traveling to the race, sleep matters more than a perfect clock change. With only a few days, land and nap. With about ten, shift your bedtime in steps. If you use melatonin, try it before race week, because some people wake up groggy. After a flight, add short easy runs.

Budget the expo and the weekend. Set a time budget for the events of the week, and swap one event for another instead of adding. See the guide on race-specific preparation for the day before and race morning.

When the taper feels wrong

Restlessness, nerves and doubt that so little running can be enough are normal in the last week or two. In a 2023 review of 48 taper studies, mood usually improved or returned to its usual level, mostly through more vigour and less fatigue, but tension could stay high, which the reviewers say could be anxiety about the coming race. Most of those studies were in swimming, triathlon and cycling, and 2 were of running¹.

Write down your race plan first: your pacing, your fueling and your logistics. If the nerves persist, name the fear, play it through to its end, and decide what you would do. Then read through the training you did, not the training you missed.

If you get sick or hurt during the taper, run the minimum to arrive healthy. After several days ill, restart with a short easy check run, not a workout.

Related guides

For where the taper sits in a plan, see periodization. For race pace work before the taper and pacing on the day, see race-specific preparation.