Weekly workout: Fine-tune your training during the taper

If you’re tapering for an upcoming marathon or half, you’re no doubt paying extra attention to how much you’re running.

Reducing the overall volume of your training in the two to three weeks before a goal race is a proven and effective way to improve your performance.

RELATED: With race day only weeks away, it’s time to demystify the taper

You should, however, aim to maintain a bit of intensity and speed in your weekly training to avoid feeling stale or flat leading up to race day.

The following workouts are ideal for anyone running an upcoming marathon or half. The idea is to practice running at goal race pace for a short and entirely sustainable amount of time. The pace should seem comfortably hard but not exhausting. You should be left feeling confident and ready to do more.

Aim to complete the workouts at least four or five days prior to your race–usually on the Tuesday or Wednesday before–and be sure to take extra care to rest and recover in the days leading up to and following the workout.

Two weeks before: the race pace tempo

Warm-up for 15-20 minutes then complete a tempo run of 30 minutes at goal race pace, be it half or marathon pace. Finish with a 15-20 minute cooldown.

One week before: race pace intervals

Warm-up for 10-15 minutes of easy running then run 3-5 x 1K intervals at goal half or marathon race pace with 500m of recovery between. Cool down with a further 10-15 minutes of easy running to finish.