How to Taper for a Half Marathon: The Last Two Weeks, Day by Day

The taper is the one part of a training plan where doing less is the assignment, and it’s easy to get wrong in both directions. Cut too little and you carry fatigue to the start line. Stop running altogether and you show up flat. A well-built taper improves performance by about 3 percent, with a usual range of 0.5 to 6 percent (Mujika & Padilla, 2003), and on a 2-hour half marathon, 3 percent is about three and a half minutes.

Most recreational runners leave some of that on the table. In Strava data from more than 158,000 marathoners, about 69 percent ran relaxed tapers, where lighter weeks were interrupted by heavier ones, and strict tapers that stepped down week after week were linked to faster finishes (Smyth & Lawlor, 2021). That data comes from the marathon, but the principle holds at shorter distances too, since progressive tapers that keep stepping down have outperformed abrupt ones in the research on tapering generally (Mujika & Padilla, 2003).

What a taper does

Hard training builds fitness and fatigue together. The aim of the taper, as Iñigo Mujika and Sabino Padilla put it, is to minimize accumulated fatigue without compromising adaptations, and the gains come from changes across the cardiorespiratory, metabolic, hormonal, neuromuscular and psychological systems (Mujika & Padilla, 2003). Pete Pfitzinger describes two practical effects: the taper gives small-scale muscle damage time to repair and glycogen stores time to refill (Competitor).

The payoff shows up in race performance. In one study, runners who cut their training volume by 85 percent for a week but kept running high-intensity intervals improved their 5K time by about 3 percent and used about 6 percent less oxygen at a set speed, while runners who did the same intervals on a bike only held their fitness (Houmard et al., 1994). A 2023 meta-analysis of tapering in endurance athletes found clear gains in time-trial performance without measurable changes in VO2max or economy (Wang et al., 2023), which suggests most of what you gain is freshness rather than new fitness.

How long to taper for a half marathon

Two weeks is the best-supported answer. A meta-analysis of 27 studies found the largest performance gains from a taper of about two weeks (Bosquet et al., 2007), and the 2023 analysis found the biggest effect from tapers of 8 to 14 days, with every taper of 21 days or less producing an improvement and longer ones the smallest effect (Wang et al., 2023).

Coaches who specialize in the half tend to go a little shorter. Laura Norris puts the half marathon taper at roughly 10 days, with the peak workout 10 to 14 days out, because threshold runs, goal-pace workouts and long runs take about 8 to 10 days to absorb (Norris). The world’s best distance runners begin tapering about 7 to 10 days before their main race (Haugen et al., 2022). Hal Higdon’s novice half marathon plan saves the taper for the final week (Higdon). The Hansons take a lighter touch, and their coach Luke Humphrey has written that they do taper but don’t take drastic measures, adding that runners who need a severe cutback usually had a training block that was too long, too intense or both (Humphrey).

The evidence for a one-week taper before a half is thinner. In a small study of trained runners finishing in about 86 minutes, cutting training by 85 percent in the week between two treadmill half marathons lowered a marker of muscle damage after the second race but didn’t make it faster (Child et al., 2000). Put together, 10 to 14 days fits a goal half marathon. When the half is a tune-up inside marathon training, a few easier days is often all runners take (Wendorff). The 18-week half marathon plan uses the full two weeks, with week 17 as the main taper and week 18 as race week, and the half marathon training guide shows where the taper sits in the full build.

How much to cut

Volume is the lever. The 2007 meta-analysis found the best results from cutting weekly volume by 41 to 60 percent, reduced progressively rather than all at once (Bosquet et al., 2007), and the 2023 analysis found the same range gave the largest effect, while smaller cuts and cuts beyond 60 percent weren’t significant in the studies it pooled (Wang et al., 2023).

In practice that means two steps down. Norris suggests running about 60 to 70 percent of your peak mileage in the week before race week, with the long run cut from 13 to 16 miles to 8 to 10, and about 40 to 50 percent of peak in race week, not counting the race (Norris). The 18-week plan follows a similar curve and goes a little deeper in race week: from a peak of 33 to 42 miles in week 16, week 17 drops to 20 to 27 miles with a 6 to 8 mile long run, and race week holds about 9 to 13 miles of running before the race itself.

Keep the number of runs close to normal. The 2007 meta-analysis found its best results when training frequency stayed the same (Bosquet et al., 2007), and Mujika and Padilla suggest trimming it by no more than about 20 percent (Mujika & Padilla, 2003). Shorter easy runs on most of your usual days do more for you than a string of extra days off.

Keep the intensity

Cutting the faster running along with the miles is a mistake coaches see often. Pfitzinger has said runners tend to focus on the rest part of the taper and don’t do enough running at race pace or slightly faster, which can leave them feeling sluggish (Competitor). The research backs him up. Keeping intensity unchanged produced the best results in the 2007 meta-analysis (Bosquet et al., 2007), and in the 2023 analysis, tapers that held intensity improved time-trial performance while tapers that reduced it didn’t (Wang et al., 2023).

What changes is the dose. Norris suggests roughly halving your peak workout, so 40 to 45 minutes at half marathon effort becomes 20 to 25 minutes of threshold running split into intervals, and then doing one sharpening session 4 to 5 days before the race, such as 2 × 6 to 8 minutes at half marathon effort with 3 minutes of rest (Norris). Elite runners do something similar, adding race-pace running as their main competition approaches (Haugen et al., 2022). The 18-week plan keeps two short workouts in week 17, 3 × 1 mile at half marathon pace and 4 × 3 minutes at 10K pace, then trims race week to 2 × 30 seconds at half marathon pace and a few strides. If a workout is new to you, it doesn’t belong in the taper, and Norris advises against adding any hard session you didn’t do in training (Norris).

Heavy strength work comes out earlier. Norris recommends dropping challenging lifting and plyometrics about 7 to 10 days before a half marathon while keeping mobility work and foam rolling (Norris).

The last two weeks, day by day

Here’s how the 18-week plan lays out the final 14 days before a Sunday race. Distances are ranges, so stay at whichever end you’ve been running all along. Paces come from a recent race, which the plan’s calculator turns into your half marathon and 10K training paces.

The shakeout the day before follows Norris’s race-week advice to run just enough to stay loose while staying fresh (Norris). Higdon’s novice plan suggests one or two rest days before a Sunday race instead (Higdon), and if that’s what you’re used to, it’s a reasonable swap.

What the taper feels like

The taper doesn’t always feel good while it’s working. Restlessness, heavy legs and random aches are common enough that Norris has a name for them, the taper crazies, and she suggests keeping as much of your normal routine as you can (Norris). Twinges that come and go are normal in the final two weeks. Pain that’s sharp or keeps getting worse is a different matter, and when to take a break from running covers how to tell the two apart.

The taper also changes how you eat. Carbohydrate loading works by pairing a carbohydrate-rich diet with a drop in training (Thomas et al., 2016), so the last few days of the taper are when the eating goes up as the running goes down. What to eat before a half marathon covers the grams, and the marathon race week guide walks through the same final days at the longer distance.

FAQ

How long should you taper for a half marathon?

Ten to 14 days for a goal race. The research favors about two weeks with a 41 to 60 percent cut in volume (Bosquet et al., 2007), and many coaches use about 10 days for the half. A few easier days is enough when the half is a tune-up.

When should my last long run be before a half marathon?

About two weeks out. Most half marathon runners do their longest long run two weeks before the race (Wendorff), and the 18-week plan’s last long run of 12 to 13 miles falls 14 days out, with a 6 to 8 mile run the following weekend.

Should I run the day before a half marathon?

The 18-week plan uses a short, easy shakeout of 2 to 3 miles. Higdon’s novice plan suggests one or two rest days before a Sunday race instead (Higdon).

Is it normal to feel sluggish during a taper?

Yes. Heavy legs, restlessness and random aches are common in the final two weeks (Norris). Skipping race-pace running can add to it (Competitor), so keep the short workouts in.

Should I stop strength training before a half marathon?

Stop heavy lifting and plyometrics about 7 to 10 days out, and keep mobility work and foam rolling (Norris).

Do I need to taper if the half is part of marathon training?

Not the full two weeks. Runners using a half as a step toward a marathon often skip the taper or cut volume for less than a week (Wendorff), because the half is there to serve the marathon rather than the other way around. Save the full taper for the race the block is built around, and give yourself time to recover afterward with the half marathon recovery guidelines.