Glycogen Depletion And Tapering For A Marathon

This is how tapering for a marathon was like years ago. The last long run used to be two weeks before the marathon and those long training runs used to be on Sundays. I don’t know how, when, or why it got switched to Saturdays. Maybe it was more convenient for more people’s daily lives that way.

Tapering used to involve decreasing the total weekly mileage gradually over two weeks (still true today except you do it over three weeks), except for the Sunday before the marathon, you would go on a medium distance run of about 10 to 15 miles for the purpose of depleting your body of glycogen. Glycogen depletion continued for three more days up to Wednesday where you would be eating a high protein diet to really strip the glycogen out of your muscles. The theory behind this is that your muscles become more receptive to storing extra glycogen when you start on a high carbohydrate diet from Thursday to Saturday in preparation for the marathon on Sunday. This training technique worked very well too. The only problem is that during your runs and other activities from Monday to Wednesday you feel very sluggish and fatigued from lack of energy-giving glycogen in your muscles. Not only that, you tend to become cranky. And if you overdo the high carbohydrate diet from Thursday to Saturday, you might gain some unwanted weight. Nowadays most marathoners don’t go on a glycogen depletion diet anymore. You only have to eat a regular diet from Sunday to Wednesday and slightly increase your carbohydrate intake from Thursday to Saturday.

Another variation of tapering involves the same decrease in running mileage, but keeping the intensity of the workouts. In other words, you still run hard during the shorter runs to retain the speed and lung capacity you have developed during training.

So there it is, sounds pretty simple. Now go and do it. A little more than a week to go for the marathon. Good luck with the diet, tapering, and the race.