Now that I've updated my mileages, I'd like to ask you guys about 'tapering'. I'm signed up for the Long Island Half Marathon 2 weeks from today (May 4th). So, I ran 13.3 miles yesterday to get my last long distance run in. I felt good and shaved another 3 minutes off of my previous time. Now, here is the thing: I've never run a half marathon. I've done over 13 miles 3 times now, but they have always been solo. My niece has finally gotten me to register for the Brooklyn Half Marathon, so I figured I'd run the L.I. Half 13 days before (so I can run at my pace) and then run the Brooklyn Half alongside her at her pace. She told me that in her taper schedule, she's supposed to run 12 miles 2weeks before the race date. Ok, so I have that part pretty much covered. Now what? Do I follow her schedule? Are there different taper schedules based: age groups, sex, abilities, etc??
Honestly, I've been working VERY hard at improving myself. I've been making big strides lately. The first time I finished 13.2 it took me 1:58:26 (05/06/12). Less than 2 years later and I did it in 1:46:58 (03/09/14). Now, yesterday, it took me 1:44:26 (04/19/14) to do 13.3. That seems to work out to about a 1:43:00 half marathon time. I'm stoked that I've improved that much and I am seriously happy that I even managed to shave almost 4 minutes over my time just 6 weeks ago. That put me at a sub 8 minute mile (7:51) over the entire distance! Arrghhh... One lousy mile took me 8:04 or else I could say the entire distance was sub 8MM.
So, I'm fired up. I have a mere 2 weeks to go and I don't know how people typically prepare. I want to keep running 6 days a week, but I'm trying to learn if I should cut down on days, pace, or mileage. Yes, I can look it all up on the internet, but I prefer to hear it from you guys who do this sort of thing. Any suggestions?
BTW: I'm going to post a thread for this in the Health and Fitness section. Now that I've posted all of this here, I realized that I might be better served by doing it in the main forum where more people would see it.
-Thanks, Ken