HANSON TAPER (Six Months Too Late)

This post is a long time coming and approximately six months overdue.

See, this one time I ran a marathon. This past June, in fact. I put a ton of hard work into training and was rewarded with an awesome race day. Finishing the marathon wasn't the life-changing event I think it was supposed to be, but it was SO MUCH FUN.

SO MUCH FUN

One of the main reasons I enjoyed marathon training (and the marathon itself) so much is that I followed the Hanson Method. If you've been around the interblogs for any length of time, you've probably heard of this plan. You know, run every day but max out at 16 miles. The plan that crazy people follow.

Although my glory days are behind me (and yet to come, hopefully? I don't think it's a stretch to call the present the "not-so-glory" running days), a lot of people continue to stumble upon this blog via Hanson searches on Google, the most common of which is some variation of "WHAT IS UP WITH THE HANSON TAPER ARE THEY CRAZY WILL I DIE?" Which led me to realize that I never actually talked about the taper after the race! So, given how much I freaked out about it at the time, I figured I owe it to all the Hanson wannabes out there to give my opinion post-race.

Before I do that, though, here are some posts on the Hanson Method, now in one easy-to-find place!

Hanson Method And A Hike - the beginning of the end (or, my thoughts prior to starting the plan)

In Which An Uneducated Person Attempts To Teach You Something (and Alaska!) - basic Hanson philosophy

Let's Talk Hanson Tempos - my thoughts on running tempos at a significantly slower pace than most training plans

Hansons!! Where's My Taper Time? - freaking out about running a billion miles just prior to the race.

"It's Mostly Pictures, I Swear!" Mayor's Marathon Recap - the marathon recap, in case you're interested.

Hanson Method Review - my overall impressions

My Review of the Hanson Marathon Method - I didn't actually write this, but it's a good and very thorough review from Gina (the Runivore), who also had a lot of success with the plan.

Anyway, you can breathe easy, Hanson-ees, because the Hanson taper is awesome. It truly is. This will likely come as a shock because Runner's World and "common sense" tell us this can't possibly be the case, but it is!

First, the Hanson philosophy vis-a-vis taper:

"... consider how you would feel if you were accustomed to drinking a couple of cups of coffee in the morning and then suddenly gave it up cold turkey. Your body probably will react with a dull headache. If instead you cut back to one cup, you limit the effects of withdrawal and usually end up feeling better. This is the same idea - reduce the stress while keeping the body happy and in its preestablished routine. By continuing to run fewer miles, but still running the same number of days, you reduce the number of variables that are adjusted. Instead of reducing frequency, volume, and intensity, you are tinkering only with the last two."

This, for me, proved true. From what I've read, the main issues people deal with while tapering are:

1) losing fitness (in fact, the Hansons do believe a 2 - 4 - week taper will cause you to lose fitness)

2) being even more tired/sluggish than during peak training

3) going insane from being sedentary

I didn't have to deal with any of these things. My main concern was that I was unnecessarily wearing myself out, but that concern faded a few days before the marathon. And on race day, I felt fantastic: no aches/pains, fresh legs, optimistic and excited to run. It's impossible to know whether I would have felt better had I tapered differently, but looking back it's hard to see how it could have gone any better than it did.

I haven't read anyone else's thoughts on the Hanson taper (Gina didn't run for a couple of weeks prior to her race because of shin pain) so my experience could well be unique. I think you'll be successful with this plan no matter how you taper, but if/when I use it for a future race, I plan to follow their taper again.