Tapering for the Comrades Marathon is challenging because runners struggle with reducing mileage and intensity, especially when balancing it with the Two Oceans Marathon, despite the benefits of allowing the body to adjust to less stress before race day. Picture: Tobias Ginsberg / File
As the Comrades Marathon is now under two weeks away, it’s widely accepted that tapering (reducing mileage and intensity of workouts) usually is the hardest part before a big race - but why is that?
It’s because you’ve become accustomed to a routine of hard workouts and you should hopefully be in great shape ahead of race day, but dialling it back always seems counterproductive on some level.
For example, if you’ve been doing between 50km and 70km every week for six weeks, reducing that mileage dramatically the two weeks before the race will make you feel like you’re losing fitness.
The opposite is actually true. Your body is just adjusting again to different stresses, and in this case it’s less stress and normally any kind of change for your body can feel strange.
