How Do You Taper?

I'm interested to hear how you taper before a long run.

I'm doing my first 50m run in three weeks, although I've already done two 100km runs. The training for those two 100k's was somewhat chaotic. Each time I realized that I was behind and ramped up quickly with a few back-to-back runs that left me with some injury about a month before the race. Therefore, tapering was never really a question. I would stop running, switch to bike rides, and hope for the best.

This time my preparation for the 50m has been much more prudent. With three weeks to go I feel pretty good and have the luxury of contemplating a taper. I'm just not sure what to do. I don't want to slack of too much, but I also don't want to push too hard and run the risk of throwing a rod right before the race. My ambitions for Firetrails are moderate. I would like to finish in about 12 hours (it took me just over 15 hours for the two 100k).

Any suggestions?

I started tapering way too early. I ran 50K end of August and my knee was bothering me so I layed off running for a week then I had a cold so now I have 3wks before Firetrail's myself and I want to ramp it back up and taper back down within three weeks. This is my dilemma..

Steve

How do I taper? Badly. Very, very badly.

I did a three week taper for Leadville this year. My last hard week was 141 miles with a 44 mile long run. Next week I did about 80 miles with a 20 mile long run. Then about 60 miles with a 15 mile long run and a 2000m repeat day. Then a 50 mile week with a 12 mile long run and a 10mile fartlek run for speed. The week of Leadville I only did 20 miles over the first 4 days of the week.

About half way through the 80 mile week my legs went dead. I was maintaining about 90 mpw up to that point and it finally caught up with me but when I got to Leadville I felt great.

mostly with Haagen Das/BnJ and a good book

4 weeks out from a 100 miler I go with 100 mile week then 60 miles then less than 50 then 15 miles. All at 10 minute pace or slower.

Wow, those are some serious miles, UltrarunnerP and dirtrunner. If I ran that much, I would qualify for a nice taper. I top out at about 50 miles a week, so maybe I'll enroll in the dirtmama program instead! Thanks for your suggestions!