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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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→Final Long Run
The evidence is that keeping the same frequency of training runs during the taper produces a better improvement than reducing the frequency.
=Final Long Run=
The long run is a key aspect of endurance training, and vital for marathon and longer races. There are two suppositions that typically influence the timing of your last long run. One is the suppositions supposition that the benefit of a long run is not realized until about 3 weeks afterward, so any long runs performed within 3 weeks of the race will produce their benefit in subsequent races. However, there is little science to back up this idea. The other supposition is that a long run causes muscular damage that takes about three weeks to heal. Given the lack of scientific evidence, the following guidelines can be used.
* If you have any noticeable soreness after your long run, leave at least 21 days between your last long run and the race.
* If you have fatigue, but no soreness after your long run, leave about 14-21 days between your last long run and the race.
* If you your long run has no noticeable impact, then you could do your last long run about 7-14 days before the race. However, this may be an indication that your long runs are not hard enough to produce endurance adaptations.
=Weekly Taper Mileage=
Because we live in a world that is structured around a 7 day week, it is natural to look at weekly mileage as a measure of training stress. For the taper period, looking at weekly mileage is not terribly useful, as it tends to create a multistep taper rather than a true exponential taper. It is far better to look at daily run length and scale each day accordingly.
