In the week before a half marathon, you should run about 40 to 60% less than your normal training volume. If you’ve been averaging 30 miles per week, that means running roughly 12 to 18 miles total in that final week. The goal is to arrive at the start line with fresh legs and full energy stores, not to build any new fitness.
How Much To Cut Your Mileage
A meta-analysis published in PLOS One found that reducing training volume by 41 to 60% produced the most consistent performance improvements in endurance athletes. Cutting less than that doesn’t give your body enough recovery time. Cutting more, say 80% or beyond, can actually leave your legs feeling flat and sluggish on race day because you’ve disrupted the neuromuscular patterns your body relies on during running.
The key principle: reduce volume but keep your intensity. Your easy runs get shorter, not slower. If you normally do a tempo run or race-pace intervals during the week, you still include a brief version of that workout. You’re trimming the total distance of each session while preserving the effort levels your body is accustomed to. A systematic review of tapering studies confirmed that athletes who maintained training intensity and frequency while only cutting volume saw the strongest race-day gains.
What a Sample Taper Week Looks Like
There’s no single perfect schedule, but a practical framework for someone who’s been running five days a week at around 25 to 35 miles might look like this:
- Monday: Complete rest day. Many runners take this day off entirely to reset after the previous week’s training.
- Tuesday: Easy run, 3 to 4 miles at a comfortable pace.
- Wednesday: A short speed session. Something like 2 to 3 miles of easy running with a few race-pace pickups of 2 to 3 minutes each. This keeps your legs sharp without draining them.
- Thursday: Easy run, 2 to 3 miles.
- Friday: Rest day or a very easy 15-minute jog.
- Saturday (day before race): A shakeout run of 10 to 20 minutes.
- Sunday: Race day.
The total mileage here falls somewhere around 12 to 16 miles, which is roughly half of a typical training week. Adjust the distances proportionally based on your own peak volume.
Your Last Long Run Should Already Be Done
By the time race week arrives, your longest training run should be two to three weeks behind you. For a half marathon, that final long run typically ranges from 9 to 11 miles. If you’re entering your taper week and haven’t done a long run of that distance, resist the urge to squeeze one in. Any fitness you’d gain from a long run this close to the race won’t materialize in time, and you’ll just show up tired.
The Day Before the Race
A short “shakeout” run the day before your half marathon is worth doing, even though it feels counterintuitive. This is a 10 to 20 minute jog at an easy, conversational pace. The purpose isn’t fitness. It’s circulation. A brief jog sends oxygen-rich blood to your muscles, keeps your movement patterns activated, and loosens up any stiffness from sitting around more than usual during taper week. Many runners also find that a shakeout run calms pre-race nerves and boosts confidence heading into the next morning.
If you genuinely feel exhausted or are dealing with a nagging ache, skipping it is fine. But for most people, 15 minutes of easy jogging helps more than an extra 15 minutes on the couch.
Three Mistakes That Hurt Race Day Performance
The most common taper error is cutting mileage too aggressively. Runners who drop to almost zero in the final week often report heavy, unresponsive legs on race morning. Since aerobic fitness contributes more than 85% of your energy during a half marathon, completely removing the stimulus that maintains that system is counterproductive. You want to feel rested, not detrained.
The second mistake is abandoning your normal routine. If you usually run in the morning, keep running in the morning. If you normally run four or five days a week, don’t suddenly drop to two. Changing your schedule, sleep patterns, or even the time of day you run can make your legs feel off. Consistency in everything except total mileage is the goal.
The third mistake is expecting to feel amazing. Taper week often comes with a strange paradox: you’re running less but your legs might feel heavier or more sluggish than usual. This is normal. Your body is adapting to the reduced workload, and some runners experience mild restlessness, irritability, or “phantom” aches. None of this predicts a bad race. Trust that the reduced volume is doing its job beneath the surface, even if your Tuesday jog feels oddly hard.
Fueling During Taper Week
Since you’re running less, your calorie needs drop slightly, but this isn’t the week to diet. In the 36 to 48 hours before the race, shift your meals toward carbohydrate-heavy foods. The standard recommendation is about 10 to 12 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight per day during that loading window. For a 150-pound (68 kg) runner, that works out to roughly 680 to 816 grams of carbs per day, which is a lot of pasta, rice, bread, and fruit.
You don’t need to stuff yourself at every meal. Spreading carbs across the full day, including snacks, makes the volume more manageable. The point is to top off your muscle glycogen stores so you have a full fuel tank on race morning. Pair this with staying well-hydrated throughout the week, not just the night before.