Sage's Pre-Race Taper Session
Workout - Sage's Pre-Race Taper Session
- 10min @ 5'00''/km
- 8 lots of:
- 1min @ 6'00''/mi
- 1min rest
- 5.0km @ 3'22''/km
- 10min @ 5'00''/km
Ready to start training?
If you already having the Pacing app, click try to import
this workout:
Don’t have the app? Copy the reference above,
to import the workout after you install it.
to import the workout after you install it.
Intro: Here’s what we pulled from COPENHAGEN MARATHON VLOG UPDATE: 10 DAYS OUT! by Vo2maxProductions. We’ll walk through the workout so you can try it this week. Watch the full video for the rest.
Key points:
- Sage is deep in the taper, dropping weekly volume to 70 to 75 mi (around 120 km) and keeping his long run easy at 14 mi to hold fitness without piling on fatigue.
- Managing the elements matters. Layers (rain jacket, long pants) help with warmth and wind resistance if race day is wet and windy.
- The speed session structure: 8 x 1-minute surges with 1-minute recovery, finished by a 3-mi tempo. It’s a textbook case of building workouts around your race goal, covered in Mastering Interval Training: Science-Backed Workouts and How a Smart App Can Personalize Them. One key difference from Mastering 5K Speed: Proven Interval Strategies to Cut Minutes off Your Time: you’re not going all-out. The short surges practice leg turnover, the tempo anchors that race-day feeling.
- The final 3-mile tempo at “comfortably hard” pace builds marathon-day confidence. Sustained efforts like this show up in every training plan, including shorter races. See Mastering the 10K: Proven Training Plans, Pace Strategies, and How a Smart App Can Elevate Your Performance.
Workout example:
Warm-up: 10 to 15 min easy jog
8 x [1 min at around 6:00 min/mi (around 350 sec/km) + 1 min easy jog]
Cool-down: 3-mile steady at 5:20 to 5:30 min/mi (around 3:20 to 3:25 min/km)
Total: around 30 to 35 minScale the paces to your marathon goal. Surges run faster than race pace, the tempo sits at comfortably hard effort.
Closing note: Try this taper-safe workout this week, adjust paces to your zones, and log it in the Pacing app.