Marathon taper plan, from the course
Taper Planner
The taper is when the training becomes the race. Put in your race day to see where you are in the twelve weeks and when your taper starts. The full planner, with every week of it dated and race week hour by hour, is part of the course.
The last three weeks, dated.
Put in your race day to see where you are in the twelve weeks, and when your taper starts.
Inside the course
Your weekly schedule, laid out for you.
The full planner is part of Marathon Courses: Weeks 10, 11 and 12 dated against your race and sized from your peak week, race week hour by hour from the first carb-load meal to the gun, and the checklist that goes with it. Every tier has it, in the taper lessons.
See the coursesThe twelve-week course
Tier I for a first marathon, Tier II for a big PB, Tier III for a BQ or faster. One video a week, with fueling, pacing, workouts, recovery and race planning in the week you need them.
Tier I
$24714 videos · 12 weeks
Your first marathon, or your first time on a real plan. Week 1 is three days of running. By the end you’ll run 16 miles (25.5km) and finish at marathon pace. We cover easy running, cross-training, fueling, recovery, your first threshold workouts, and how to run each half of the race.
Start Tier I
Tier II
$24714 videos · 12 weeks
You’ve done one or a few, but now we get faster. You should be holding 20–30 miles (32–48km) a week before Week 1. You’ll peak around 54–60 miles (87–97km), with marathon pace in your long runs, a 20-miler (32km), and a 10K time trial that sets your race pace.
Start Tier II
Tier III
$24714 videos · 12 weeks
You’re chasing a BQ or faster. You should be holding 30–40 miles (48–64km) a week before Week 1. You’ll peak at 60–70 miles (97–113km), with LT, CV and VO2max work, a 20-mile (32km) long-run workout, and an even-split race plan.
Start Tier III
All three
$494
$741Buy two, get the third free. That’s 42 videos, one for every kilometer of the marathon, and three training blocks from your first marathon to your first BQ attempt.
Get all three
How the numbers are worked out
What the full planner does
It dates Weeks 10, 11 and 12 against your race day and sizes each one from your peak week. Race week is laid out hour by hour, from the first carb-load meal to the gun, with the checklist from the Week 8 planning lesson beside it. It's in every tier of the course, in the taper lessons, and it opens on your race.
How the weeks are counted
The course's weeks run Monday to Sunday, and race day falls in Week 12. Week 1 starts on the Monday eleven weeks before race week's, and the taper starts with Week 10. For a race that isn't on a Sunday, the course keeps Monday as day one and adjusts the final ten days rather than shift the whole block.