#130 Should I Taper or Keep Training? - a podcast by Dr. Christopher Segler

Today on the Doc On The Run podcast, we're talking about whether or not you should taper or just continue training when you have soreness right before your marathon.
 

The purpose of a taper, is to really get prepared physically to do your best, actually perform your best, on race day. You should always taper if you have been sticking to your marathon plan, if you're fully trained, if you're fit, if you've really got all of your training in, then you can taper with confidence. But if you've done less than optimal training, i you didn't stick to your plan, well what are you going to taper from?

And somewhere in between there is where most people fall in. They missed a couple of workouts here and there, they want to extend the training period into that taper period, and that's where you start getting into trouble. And if you had any kind of injury and you extend your training into your taper period, you are really playing with fire. That part I don't think anybody would disagree with.

So you just have to decide, given your scenario, how much training you did and how closely you stuck to your plan, whether or not you can push your taper a little bit, or if you should skip it all together. But that's something you've got to talk with your coach and you have figure out what to do.

Remember, the goal is to make it to the race, make it through in one piece, and then continue resuming in whatever training is and you have to think about what your goal is after that event to really make a clear decision.

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