The Taper

Those of you planning to join us at Angkor in August may be interested in a question came up at the hash the other day: what's the optimum rest time before running a half marathon?

After wasting I mean spending a hour or two of valuable research, I can tell you that this topic (known as "The Taper") seems to fascinate serious long-distance runners. You could spend weeks reading everything written about it. But here are a few points on which the experts pretty much agree:

* Your last long run (18-20km) should be about two weeks before the event.

* Your last "hard" run, which is to say a run fast and long enough to tire you out, should be about a week before. Typically this seems to be about 8-10km. Most of us will be running SH3 and/or HH3 the weekend before Angkor, which should be just about right.

* In the last week before the race you should go running on the same days you normally would train, but for just a nice comfortable 30-minute or so jog. On the last two days, either total rest or just a bit of walking or very gentle jogging.

Here's a good short article on tapering for a half-marathon. It doesn't give any guidelines for beer consumption, but my recommendation is don't confuse your body by suddenly depriving it of this essential nutrient.