Ah, the glorious weeks of tapering, during which you run less in order to prepare yourself to run more.
It's slightly counterintuitive the first time you hear the concept. Instead of running long and hard up to the last minute, tapering means that you back off your running and physical activities before racing. There are a couple reasons for this.
First, by giving your body time to recover, you retain the benefits of all the prior weeks of training while allowing your body to repair the damage that has also accumulated during that time. Hard exercise damages muscle fibers and makes you tired. By reducing your exercise load, you allow your body to fully catch up.
Second, you reduce your risk of injury. Training for a marathon is hard and requires a lot of time running. More time running present a higher risk of injury both due to the length of time running (more chances to twist your ankle or pull a muscle) as well as the fatigue that builds up while you run (making you more likely to have bad form and step wrong). An injury in the final weeks before the race is unlikely to heal in time.
Finally, after you've built a solid mileage base and done several runs in the 15-20 mile range, the incremental benefit of running farther diminishes. This is why training plans rarely advise you to run more than 20-22 miles for your longest pre-race run. It's hard advice to wrap your head around, because in most other endeavors we try to practice the exact thing we're going to do before doing it. With running, we're explicitly advised not to try running the full distance before race day. This is because the adrenaline of race day, plus the mileage base that you've built up over the preceding months, serves as more than enough to get you to the finish line.
So, in conclusion, I was very excited to run only 12 miles on Saturday. Strangely, it didn't feel significantly less difficult than running 15-16 miles like I had in previous weeks. There's a point you hit around mile 5-6 where everything sort of blends together, effort-wise. The running doesn't get physically easier, but you've entered a mental state where it doesn't matter so much. However, it's nice to finish the run and find that it's only been two hours instead of the usual 3-4 hours!
Week 16 Plan
Total: 30 miles
Sunday: 5 miles
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: HIIT
Wednesday: 8 miles
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 12 miles
Week 16 Results
Total: 24.65 miles
Sunday: 4.6 miles
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: HIIT
Wednesday: 8.1
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 11.95 miles
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