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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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==Rebound==
The rebound is a short increase in training load, just before competition. This approach was developed from the observation that some athletes in multiday competitions such as track races have their performance improve as the heats progress. How much the training load should be increased is not well defined, but the general idea is to focus on increased intensity with a moderate uptick in volume. The rebound should be in the last few days before competition.
=Personal experience=
Because I was pacing the 2011 Thunder Road Marathon, I decided to experiment with a Three Phase Taper. Given this was not a major race, I decided on a short taper of two weeks. I did a one-week overload, followed by a four day decay, and a one day rebound. My weekly mileage leading up to the three phase taper was 114, 108, 102, 150, 140. Therefore I targeted to a 20% overload based on a 140 mile per week giving me a ~170 mile target. The details of each day's training are shown on the table below. The overload was extremely tough and towards the end of is unable to maintain the required mileage to hit my target. The first day of the decay period I was hoping to cover 16 miles at marathon pace, but I was too tired off to the overload and could only maintain marathon pace for 11 miles. The next three days constituted a very short exponential decay taper, and the day before the race was a single day rebound up to 6 miles. The day before the race also included some carbohydrate loading which resulted in weight gain of approximately 3 1/2 pounds.
==Training details==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
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'''Date'''
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'''Mileage'''
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'''Pace'''
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'''Notes'''
|-
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<div align="right">'''Monday, October 31, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">24</div>
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8:02
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Aiming for ~8:00 pace and feeling okay
|-
|
<div align="right">'''Tuesday, November 01, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">24</div>
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8:07
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Aiming for ~8:00 pace and feeling okay
|-
|
<div align="right">'''Wednesday, November 02, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">25</div>
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7:59
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Aiming for ~8:00 pace and feeling okay
|-
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<div align="right">'''Thursday, November 03, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">24</div>
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8:36
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Too much fatigue for 8:00 pace
|-
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<div align="right">'''Friday, November 04, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">23</div>
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8:31
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Fatigue hit badly later in the run
|-
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<div align="right">'''Saturday, November 05, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">25</div>
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8:43
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Aimed for a slower pace, as fatigue is too great
|-
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<div align="right">'''Sunday, November 06, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">21</div>
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8:36
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Intended to run 25, but too tired
|-
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<div align="right">'''Monday, November 07, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">11</div>
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6:58
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Target MP of ~6:50, but a little too slow and terminated the run when the pace dropped too far
|-
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<div align="right">'''Tuesday, November 08, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">13</div>
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6:40
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Legs bouncing back
|-
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<div align="right">'''Wednesday, November 09, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">7.5</div>
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6:44
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|-
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<div align="right">'''Thursday, November 10, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">3</div>
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6:51
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Shortest run of the decay period, not really even warming up
|-
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<div align="right">'''Friday, November 11, 2011'''</div>
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<div align="right">6</div>
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6:50
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A slight rebound, increasing miles to 6. Carbohydrate loading for one day.
|-
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<div align="right">'''Saturday, November 12, 2011'''</div>
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35
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7:00
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Pace Thunder Road Marathon, 3:02 for the marathon, plus extra 9 miles.
|}
==Conclusion==
A two-week period was too short to work well. A one-week overload seem to be quite effective but I don't think I could've tolerated much more. However the fatigue from that one-week overload was too great to recover in just six days. That said, I found much better prepared for pacing the race than I expected. Maintaining marathon pace throughout the decay and rebound worked remarkably well and I felt very comfortable that pace during the race. The carbohydrate loading was especially successful as I've maintained a low carbohydrate diet until the day before the race. Next time around I will follow a similar pattern, but I will allow a longer decay period.
=See also=
* [[Practical Tapering]]
