My First Marathon Taper……Meat Pies, Beer and Chicken Wings

You know the feeling or you are experiencing it now, the gruelling months of 75–100km training weeks, the quality workouts, the long runs (did someone mention it was insane to do 30kms in 34C heat?) and after all the planning of what the 42km + race might look and feel like you hit this mentally tough period of “Taper”.

Marathoning was hard — I can say it in the past tense now because I’m a marathoner — I love the sound of that.

Let me tell you about my unconventional taper period — I hope it helps and gives you confidence that you can’t really make more mistakes than I did.

Image Source: Author. Me, sweating like a madman immediately after claiming a 10km PB early in the Marathon training block

I’m pretty sure I did everything wrong during the taper but I’m not sure if it made a difference or not — I’ll share what I did and you decide.

My hope is that this “taper report” gives some of you the confidence to relax a bit and not to worry too much about the taper period. After all — I rationalised that if you can’t gain fitness in the last 3 weeks you probably can’t really lose it either……(warning: not sure if this is true)

Some context for you:

1. I had run over 1200kms in the previous 3 months and the body had become quite used to putting in 75km+ weeks, this was in stark contrast to 2019 and 2020 where a 50km week would have broken me…..more on that another time — in summary — I just built up the weekly distance really slowly;
2. I’m 43 and started running in 2018 after not being able to finish a park run and I had run a couple of Half Marathon races and some solo PBs in the past year so the chance to complete my first Marathon was a big goal. My fitness was at roughly 1:44 — 1:47 Half Marathon and a 47 minute 10k at this point and I was targeting a sub 4 Marathon if possible — lifetime kms sit at around 3000Kms;
3. My training plan (the high volume marathon power plan from Stryd) included a couple of quality sessions each week which I generally loved. These ranged from 30second strides to 4 minute sprints and 15 minute blocks at Lactate Threshold or other specific power zones; and
4. Shock — about three weeks out from race day I was so sick of training I just stopped. That is, my body was ok to keep going but I mentally gave out. This might have been due to the insane long run I did in the heat where I felt like my insides were about to melt.

That last long run was supposed to be a confidence builder — it was good mentally to some extent but I did follow it up with one more long run the next weekend of around 20kms with a fast second half at race pace which was much better at building race confidence before the taper really kicked in.

So there I was — shortly after my longest long run — which was a 30km pain fest in 34C heat on country roads in South Australia and apart from the 20km “confidence builder” run I mentioned I pretty much just stopped running — I probably then only completed 20kms over the next three weeks over a series of jogs, none of them more than 7kms and at a very easy pace. This was three weeks out from the race and it started to worry me.

What else? I started eating pies, roast pork rolls and chips — I ate this for lunch almost every single day from three weeks out. This is in contrast to starting my training on a completely vegan diet because my past experience had been that this resulted in plenty of energy, good recovery and a good settling of race weight over time.

I put on about 3kgs in the final three weeks, going from 91kgs to 94kgs (and 96kg on race morning which I attribute to being well hydrated). To clarify — I’m a total flexitarian and don’t identify with any particular diet regimen but I do enjoy both meat based and plant based options, I certainly don‘t find it a burden to be plant based for several months.

In addition to the pies, chips and whatever junk food I could get my hands on I started drinking beers. Thats right — I went from a zero alcohol, monastic training focus to drinking two — three beers every night. Now these were good beers mind you, some solid local pale ales, NEIPAs and double IPAs. It might have just been the previous abstinence but these were going down so well and I was loving the beer.

It continues……a week out from the race I went with one of my mates to a taphouse for Friday night wings and beers. That is - 50c hot wings available all night. My memory is a little hazy but I’m pretty sure we did 80 or 100 wings that night and more than a couple of beers. I wake up the next morning pretty dusty and with a dry mouth like I haven’t had since I was in my twenties. So my hydration is at rock bottom one week out.

I’m not sure if I could have sabotaged my race any further than this but that was certainly my worry at the time. I felt pretty out of control and despite being quite focused on training before the taper period I couldn't rein it in to just “exist” in that peaceful state of keeping it all together leading up to race day.

As an aside — it was a dificult period for me at work, so while that isn’t an excuse it might be a reason and I think this falls into the category of life pressures impacting performance and training.

I experienced these impacts first hand and was a little surprised at the extent of the impact these stressors can have on training. Running had been my outlet for stress and without the burden of the high training volume I sought other mechanisms to cope — ie pies, beer and chicken wings.

With a week to go and fresh off the wings and beers night I decided to get serious. I got back into a better diet — several days that week were fresh fish and salad greens style meals and more than a couple of very basic pasta meals.

Side note: One of my favourite training meals is basic pasta with fresh herbs from the garden and a drizzle of garlic oil and a small amount of cheese. Add salt and pepper and so long as your herbs are good ( I use Chives, Sage, Parsely and Thyme) this is a delicious meal that is so easy to make any time of the day. It takes no more than 10 minutes to prepare.

I put in an especially diligent effort to hydrate from three days out, drinking around 4L of water each day — throughout the day (not just in one big session). The extra water and slight change in diet had me feeling energetic and sleeping really well. In fact, I woke up on race day with so much energy and feeling so well hydrated that it surprised me how good I felt.

My meal the night before was a simple chicken and pasta affair but with no spices or extra things that might have had an unexpected impact on me digestively. Breakfast was three hours before start time and comprised sourdough toast, a banana and coffee (which did the trick so to speak).

How did it go? Not a race report but some comments.

1. I arrived at the race start area 30 minutes early;
2. I felt strong and no need to line up for the bathroom (which surprised me);
3. The race itself was great — I went out a little faster than I thought I might (5:11/km versus 5:22/km) but quickly reined that back in and settled into a 5:20–5:25 pace (for those who use power I’m converting my 295–300W power target into pace for the majority of readers);
4. The other thing I was able to keep in mind was to take it easy on the hills of which there were several and I think this helped extend the longevity of my energy;
5. Hit the wall at km 35 and cramped in both legs, some electrolyte helped and I was able to shuffle to a 3:49:53 finish.

I was over the moon! I achieved all my goals including the “wildest dreams” finish time one. Finished — check, sub 4hrs — check, sub 3:50 — only just but check. So maybe there is something in my special taper system? Or maybe I was in 3:45 form and dropped a few minutes based on my less than solid tapering skills? Whatever, I’m a marathoner now :-)

Summary of my taper system (yes, you may borrow it — who knows, the secrets to enhanced performance might exist in here somewhere):

• Finish your longest run, do one more 20 km confidence builder with a fast finish 3 weeks out and then just stop running except for a couple of 5–7km jogs when you feel guilty;
• Eat all the meat pies, roast pork rolls with gravy and chips you can get your hands on;
• Drink all the beer;
• Plan a massive night a week prior to the race and drink all the beer and eat all the hot wings you can;
• With one week to go, go back to healthy meals, carb up over the final 4 days and drink 4L of water a day for the final 3 days; and
• When you get to your race — enjoy yourself, you trained hard, you earned this and no beer, pie or chicken wing in the taper period has really impacted your fitness that much at all so be confident.

Happy running champions.