Stop - taper time!
You might have heard or seen the term 'tapering' being used with increasing frequency (and an air of excitement) over the last few weeks as the marathon and half marathon training plans near their end. But what does it all mean? In its basic form, tapering "refers to the practice of reducing exercise before an important competition". If you've been following one of Kingsway Runners' training plans over the last few months, you'll notice that the last two weeks before the big day involve quite a considerably shorter number of runs and distances than you've been building up to. This is your taper time - enjoy it! Up to this point, you've been putting your body through increasingly more stress each week and if you're anything like me, you're constantly tired and hungry, everything hurts and you can't quite remember what life was like before you decided to do nothing apart from run. Why we taper Reason 1 - All that stress mentio...