The best article I've ever read on tapering. It's from a running magazine, but I think if you read what he has to say about tapering for a 5-10K and then tapering for a marathon and keep those principles in mind, especially 75-50, etc., you'll be doing good. Also, it's only going to do you good to taper for a month if you've been prepping aerobically for about 6 weeks - two months.
Tapering is an art, not a science. Listen to your body's feedback.
Quote:
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The Marathon Taper: For a marathon or half-marathon, your taper period will need to be longer. Therefore, cut back for about a month before the marathon using a "75-50-30-15" plan. That is, do 75 percent of usual mileage the first week, 50 percent the second week and so on. (For a half-marathon, figure on a two-week, "50-15" plan.) During the initial three weeks of the marathon taper, do your hard stuff as you have been, but cut back on the easy miles. The last week, emphasize interval work equally divided between 5-K race pace and marathon race pace. Again, be sure you have done some of these workouts in the weeks leading up to your taper so these taper workouts won't make you sore.
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http://www.runnersworld.com/events/b...ng/oataper.htm