IM Training vs Marathon taper

Yikes!  A day per mile?  That mean I shouldn't run at all till the marathon? 

 What are your thoughts on swimming?  Obviously I don't use my legs much when I swim....but I am spending a lot of energy in the pool every morning.

~Mike

Mike,

What Johnny is saying is completely correct for AFTER the marathon. That means almost a month until you are fully recovered from the Marathon. Like he said I would never let one of my athletes do a full marathon during IM training unless they are very experienced and recover quickly. My advice is only go about 80% on the marathon and then ease back into running about two weeks after the race.

I'm not so sure that "day for every mile" means completely off from running, just no racing or intense workouts during that period. At least that's the way I've always heard it explained.

I've always started light jogging after a day or two of complete rest following a marathon.

Edit- here's our ol' buddy Hal:

After the Marathon:
Generally, it takes a minimum of two to three weeks for the body to recover from the strain of running 26 miles 385 yards. Return too quickly and you increase your risk of injury. Some experts suggest resting one day for every mile you run in the marathon, thus 26 days of no hard running or racing! Others suggest one day for every kilometer, thus 42 days rest. Often the determining factor is not how quickly your body recovers, but how quickly your mind recovers, since you temporarily will have lost your main training goal. Olympic champion Frank Shorter says: "You’re not ready to run another marathon until you’ve forgotten the last one."

More of his post-marathon advice here:

http://www.halhigdon.com/postmarathon/zeroweek0.html

Thanks for the post marathon adivce guys.  What about this week and next week before the marathon?

I ran 12 miles Sunday.  Monday - swam 1 mile.  Tues - swam 1.5 miles, hill progam 30 min, ran 1 mile.  Wed (today) - Swam 1 mile, ran 2 miles, 15 min hill program.

I think I'm gonna lay off the running and biking till after the CMM.  But what about the swimming?  Can I continue to swim w/i it affecting the marathon?

~Mike

Swimming will still burn fuel.  It may not be an impact sport, but it uses up your glycogen stores.

That being said, everyone tapers differently.  I know people who run 60 miles the week of the marathon (of course, that's down from 80-100 at peak).

If you're following some sort of plan for the marathon, figure you could probably reduce biking and swimming by like amounts (or possibly less) as the running. 

This is exactly what someone asked me yesterday.  Ironically, I signed up for the CMM as an "interim goal" on the road to IMKY.  I figured it'd be a good test of my metal and force me to not wait too late to get my running distance up there.

I swam this morning and will swim tomorrow and M&T of next week and then will take WTF off and take up on carbs.  I think I'll stay of the road and off the bike for till after the CMM.

My last marathon was on 7 Jan.  I took 4 days off after that, and then logged 20 miles over the next 7 days.  So I guess my body recovers fairly quickly.

~Mike

For what it is worth, I ran a full marathon in March, with IM CdA in June.  However, prior to the IM stuff, I was a high mileage runner.  I also recover fairly quickly from running and did not run my typical marathon training mileage leading up to the race.  I also ran the marathon a little slower than others.  I ended up cutting back on running for 2 weeks around the race. I never once felt like the marathon took away from my IM training.  In fact, I rode a century the next weekend without issue. 

Good luck, but do take it a little slower than usual on race day. 

Walking around uses up glycogen stores also, a short 30-45 min swim is not going to deplete your glycogen stores enough that you can replenish them prior to the race. It's also a good idea to get the muscles moving and "warmed up" for lack of a better term the day before the race, otherwise you get sluggish and it takes longer to warm up the next day. Especially if you train 5-6 days a week anyway, you body expects to work a little.

I would still be running some prior to the marathon.  You want to taper, not cut it off completely.  Just cut back on the mileage.  Check out one of the Higdon plans on-line or something to get an idea for the kind of volume cut-back recommended.

And, as Bear noted, you should be running again well before 26 days (following the "rule-of thumb".  But you should keep things easy and be very careful with volume for a few weeks.  Even if you feel OK, it is unlikely that your legs have fully recovered from the trauma of the marathon.