This 4-Week Reverse Taper Plan Helps You Ease Back Into Running After a Marathon

After following a training plan for months to prepare for your marathon, it can feel jarring to look at your workout calendar and see nothing but blank space where your daily runs used to be. And while it’s good—essential, actually—to rest and recover after you cross the finish line, it’s also when you might start grappling with certain thorny questions: “When should I start running again? Am I coming back too early or too late? And is it normal to still be this sore?”A “postmarathon training plan” that emphasizes recovery and eases you back into running could save you a lot of stress and uncertainty. Enter: the reverse taper.A reverse taper is exactly what it sounds like: a mirror image of your prerace mileage reduction. “For a marathon taper, the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) suggests reducing mileage by 40 percent two weeks out from your race and by 70 percent one week out,” Christine Rockey, an exercise physiologist, RRCA-certified run coach, and principal lecturer at Coastal Carolina University, tells Runner’s World.Immediately after your marathon, taking a few days off from running gives your body an opportunity to recover and repair muscle damage. “The second week postrace, you’d do no more than 30 percent of your mileage, 60 percent the third week, and then 100 percent the fourth week,” Rockey explains.While this is an excellent rule of thumb, many runners can benefit from a little more specificity—and a little less math when they’re mentally fatigued from a hard 26.2 miles.So, to take the guesswork out of postmarathon recovery, we have a four-week plan that guides you through the process one day at a time. Like any training plan, you don’t need to follow it perfectly. But having it stuck to your fridge or on your workout schedule can maintain your sense of routine, boost your outlook and motivation for training, and help you enjoy postrace recovery a little more knowing that you have experts in your corner.Download PlanAbout This Plan This plan focuses on two major goals in the days and weeks following your marathon: the first is promoting physiological recovery, and the second is facilitating a safe return to training.Your body does most of its initial recovery in the first few days to one week, says creator Kate Baird, ACSM-certified clinical exercise physiologist, USATF-certified run coach, and running and metabolic testing coordinator at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.After those first seven days postmarathon, you’ll use the following two weeks to gradually rebuild your mileage, and then begin adding some intensity in Week 4. “Taking the time to reverse taper will help you avoid overtaxing your joints, muscles, and connective tissues, as well as give your body a well-deserved deload period,” Baird explains.Week 1 Postmarathon: RecoverYour priority for the first week postmarathon is physiological recovery, plain and simple. During those initial two days, lean into rest mode and try to minimize any additional life or training stress, Baird says.“Your joints and muscles may feel ready to run, but research shows your body’s inflammatory response remains generally elevated through at least the first 48 hours following the marathon,” she explains. For that reason, focus on getting plenty of rest and hydrating and fueling well.That said, every runner’s postmarathon recovery will look different. Rockey felt surprisingly good the morning after her first marathon and went for a short, easy jog. Her husband, however, walked with a limp the first few days postrace until his soreness finally began to dissipate. How you’ve felt after previous races and hard workouts can give you an idea of your recovery, but you won’t know for sure until you’re actually in the thick of it. So listen closely to your body in real time so you can give it what it needs.One thing you want to avoid, though: not moving from the couch all day, Rockey says. “There really shouldn’t be any complete sit-on-the-couch rest days at all after your marathon—unless you want to prolong your recovery. That’s one of the worst things you can do because it allows blood to pool and lets inflammation persist,” she explains.Gentle stretching, walking, and yoga are great activities to get blood flowing to those tired muscles. “Do whatever you can to move—maybe not necessarily run. If you’re at a destination race, get out and go sightseeing,” she says.Doing some physical activity raises your heart rate, which helps get more blood flow to the muscles. That allows macrophages—white blood cells that clean up bacteria and damaged tissue—to come in and clear the inflammation that’s making you sore, Rockey explains.While every runner’s individual timeline is different (some runners prefer two weeks totally off from running, and that’s totally acceptable!), days three to seven postrace are usually when muscle soreness tends to peak and then gradually improve. It’s during this period that many runners will be physiologically ready to try a short and easy run, says Baird. In fact, according to a small study published in Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found that by day seven postmarathon, runners’ VO2 max, running economy, and anaerobic threshold matched their prerace levels.This doesn’t mean that you absolutely need to run this week, but you have the option to head out for a few short, easy jogs as your soreness and fatigue improve. If running doesn’t sound good to you just yet, you can cross-train on the bike or elliptical to help ease the transition.Week 2: Rebuild FrequencyThe second week postrace is when most coaches agree you can slowly start incorporating more runs into your routine. But it’s important not to try to rebuild everything all at once, Baird says, especially because some biomarkers of inflammation in your body may still be elevated.You’ll first increase the frequency of your runs, followed by distance, and then by intensity. During this week, aim for three to four runs depending on your soreness and fatigue level. Keep your pace easy and conversational; a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) of 2 to 4 out of 10, with 10 being all-out effort, is a good effort to target.Don’t force anything if your body still needs more time, says Baird. You’ll know you’re ready to progress to Week 3 when walking and climbing stairs feel normal, and your legs no longer feel unusually sore or heavy.Week 3: Rebuild VolumeWeek 3 of this plan is when you’ll begin to add more volume to your reestablished running routine. One of the ways you’ll do that is by adding in a weekly “long run” of 50 to 70 minutes, based on your running volume during your marathon build.Week 4: Reintroduce IntensityThen, at Week 4, you can inject some intensity into your routine with a quality, high-effort workout. You can do this with an interval run at lactate threshold pace, or you can simply tack on a few strides to the end of an easy run. The decision is up to you and will largely depend on your current level of soreness and fatigue, your training history, and your next running goal.You’ll know that you’re recovering well through the third and fourth weeks when your easy runs actually feel easy and you aren’t experiencing any new aches or pains. At this point, your energy, appetite, and sleep should all be returning to their premarathon norms.If you aren’t seeing those signs yet, don’t worry. Everyone recovers at their own pace and some runners do better with an extended period of recovery, says Baird. If that’s the case, repeat your current week of the reverse taper before you give yourself the green light to progress to the next one.Other Postmarathon Recovery Tips Sleep and nutrition do the heavy lifting when it comes to marathon recovery, but there are a few other things that can help you bounce back. For example, Rockey is a firm believer in compression: “Personally, I’ve found that putting on some compression socks or tights as soon as I can after I cross the finish line helps quite a bit with soreness,” she says. (Some research indicates that compression gear can only modestly reduce the severity of delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS.)Rockey also suggests “legs up the wall” and heat therapy, such as a hot bath, shower, or especially a sauna, if you have access to one.Finally, don’t neglect the mental aspects of recovery, which are equally important to keep you coming back to the starting line healthy. According to Rockey, there’s one thing—besides signing up for another race—that helps her kick the postmarathon blues.“Dedicate some of the time freed up after marathon training to support other runners in your community,” she says. “Maybe you’ll be inspired to volunteer at a race or youth running program, help organize shoe or gear donations, or mentor a new runner. You never know the good that might come of it.”Morgan is a gear editor who has been with Runner’s World since 2017. She started as an intern ghostwriting The Warmup, a bygone version of the daily RW newsletter. Now, she tests and reviews anything you might find on runners’ feet-from crew socks and compression boots to carbon-plated super shoes. A lifelong runner and shoe geek, Morgan has been chasing the perfect pair of kicks since she joined her grade school cross-country team. Since then, she ran as a Division I walk-on for the cross-country and track & field teams at the University of Delaware, where she studied English and Biology. She has one full marathon under her belt, and has raced more halfs and 5Ks than she can count.