Hey everyone,

I've been running somewhat seriously since about 2021, logging minimum 20 km/week year-round, and ramping up/down according to races. Last year I ran my first marathon and ended up bonking pretty hard at 30 km in. A tale as old as time itself. I wasn't following a training plan so I definitely didn't put in enough weekly kilometers to have a good aerobic base etc.

Anyway, this year I'm following the Hanson advanced marathon training plan. I'm 9 weeks in (out of 18) and I feel like the cumulative fatigue is already starting to slap pretty hard. I'm working on slowing down the easy runs which is helping, and the last few weeks have also been quite hot and humid which isn't helping. I am also trying to ramp up my carb intake which has probably been a bit low.

Anyway, my question - seeing as the advanced plan was probably a bit much to chew for my running level (going from 20-30km/week - 70-80 for the last 2 months), and I'm already feeling the fatigue, should I stick to the prescribed one week taper, or make it a two week taper? It seems like most plans generally have a two week taper.

I was thinking about maybe doing one tempo run about two weeks before the race, then hitting 40-50 km that week, and the suggested ~30 km on race week. According to the training plan, the week before race week should be 86 km.