Three weeks out, run about 85-90% of your peak mileage. Two weeks out, 70-75%. In race week, 40-50%. Keep your pace work and nearly all your runs.
That’s the whole plan. The rest of this post is the detail, plus what to do when a cold, a flight or a bad night wrecks your schedule.
What a marathon taper does
A taper cuts fatigue while your fitness stays put. The famous 2007 meta-analysis looked at 27 studies. The best taper lasted 2 weeks. Volume fell 41-60%, with no change to intensity or frequency (Bosquet et al., 2007). In short: fewer miles, same effort, same number of runs.
An earlier review found the average race gain was about 3%, with a range of 0.5-6.0% (Mujika and Padilla, 2003). For a 4-hour marathoner, 3% is about 7 minutes. That’s free time.
Think of a phone battery. Training drains it, and it also builds a bigger battery. The taper is the charge. Leave it plugged in too long and you lose sharpness. Unplug it too early and you start the race at 60%.
Taper discipline beats taper length
The biggest marathon dataset comes from Strava. It covers 158,117 recreational runners. A strict 3-week taper saved a median of 5 min 32 s, or 2.6% (Smyth and Lawlor, 2021). “Strict” means every week is lighter than the last.
Here are the gains for men by taper type.
Only 31% of runners tapered strictly. The other 69% bounced mileage back up in one week, often out of nerves. That rebound cost them real minutes. Women saw a 33-69% larger benefit from 2 and 3 week tapers.
Strict beats long. Never add miles back.
The three-lever rule: cut volume, keep pace, keep frequency
Pull one lever hard and leave two alone.
- Volume: cut it. Weekly miles fall in steps.
- Intensity: keep it. Short efforts at marathon pace stay in.
- Frequency: hold it. Cut run count by no more than 20%.
Why keep the pace work? In the 2007 meta-analysis, tapers that held intensity worked best. Cutting intensity took away the gain. Cutting runs did too. Your legs forget fast. A few sharp minutes remind them.
Frequency matters too. After 18 weeks of training, men who ran daily during a 6-day taper improved. Men who ran 4 of 6 days did not (Mujika et al., 2002). So don’t trade runs for the couch. Make the runs shorter.
Marathon taper week by week
Use your peak week as 100%. Here’s the pattern.
| Week | Weekly miles | Long run | Quality session | Carbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 weeks out | 85-90% | 80-85% of peak long run | Marathon-pace run about 12-13 days out | Normal |
| 2 weeks out | 70-75% | 50-60% of peak long run | Short marathon-pace tempo 6-7 days out | Normal |
| Race week | 40-50% | None | 6-8 x 2 min at marathon pace on Tuesday | 10-12 g/kg, final 36-48 h |
A simpler rule is 80%, 60%, 40%. It works too. Pick one and don’t mix them.
Here’s the shape against a step taper. The numbers are stylized, not measured.
For a 2-week taper, start at the 70-75% row and go from there. This post covers the marathon. For shorter races, see how long to taper for a half marathon.
Week 3 out
Your long run drops to about 80-85% of peak. Run your last big marathon-pace workout early in the week. Your legs should still feel mostly normal. Enjoy it.
Week 2 out
This is the heavy-legs week. Your long run falls to 50-60% of peak. Run one short tempo at marathon pace. Then expect to feel flat.
That’s normal. Glycogen, your stored muscle fuel, is rebuilding. Blood volume is rising. Muscle damage markers are falling. Heavy legs mean the repairs are happening.
Race week
Keep it short and sharp. Do your marathon-pace reps on Tuesday. Then run easy with a few strides. Take the day before the race off, or jog 15 minutes.
Nothing you do on Wednesday builds fitness. It can only add fatigue.
Carb loading without overeating
Your miles are falling, so your calorie needs fall too. Don’t keep eating the same food. Shift the mix instead. For the final 36-48 hours, aim for 10-12 g of carbs per kg of body weight per day (Burke et al., 2011). That’s 700-840 g for a 70 kg runner.
Choose low-fiber carbs like rice, bread and pasta. Cut fat and fiber to make room. The full plan is in the 3-day carbohydrate loading protocol.
When you feel flat or twitchy
Taper madness is real. You’ll feel sluggish, restless and sure you’re losing fitness. You aren’t. Stopping training completely costs fitness. Cutting miles does not.
Use a simple rule for new aches. If a niggle wasn’t there in peak training, treat it as noise for 48 hours. If it sharpens or changes how you run, see a clinician. Heavy legs are fine. Sharp pain is not.
What to do if your marathon taper gets disrupted
Life doesn’t pause for your taper. Here’s how to handle four common hits.
- A missed run: skip it. Don’t make it up. Fitness from 16 weeks of work doesn’t vanish in one day.
- Bad sleep: keep the easy runs, but cut the tempo to half. Keep strides only. Sleep is your priority.
- Travel: a flight is a missed run, not a crisis. Walk the airport. Run easy when you land. Don’t add a “catch-up” day.
- Illness: below the neck, rest. Above the neck, easy only, and only if you feel fine. Read the neck check for sick runners for the full rules.
Never add a rebound week to feel better. That turns a strict taper into a relaxed one. Lost two full weeks? This guide on missed training shows what to cut.
A taper case study
Take a runner I’ll call Tom. He’s 44, peaked at 45 miles a week, and wanted a 3:45 marathon. In his first race, he ran 40 miles, then felt nervous and ran 44 the next week. Race week was 20. He ran 3:52 and felt flat.
Next time he went strict: 40 miles, then 32, then 20. He held marathon-pace reps and kept five runs a week. He finished in 3:46. His fitness hadn’t changed. His taper had.
If your legs still feel heavy in the final weeks, check the warning signs of a marathon plan that is too hard.
How AthleteOS handles it
AthleteOS builds your taper from your race date. Each week gets lighter, and pace work stays in. If you miss a run, get sick or fly out, your training plan adapts. It swaps a run for an easy shakeout instead of deleting it. It won’t add a rebound week. Each change comes with a reason. The race readiness check shows how fresh you are going into race day.
Pick your weeks. Cut the miles. Trust the work.