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👋🏻 Hey Reader!
Wednesday September 23 · Chicago 5 of 7
Yesterday we covered why the taper works and why it's frightening. Today there's no theory. Today there are dates.
Week by week: how much you cut, which sessions stay, and what not to touch between now and October 11. And note: your taper started Monday. You're two days in.
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Sunday October 11 · 7:20 am · Grant Park
18 DAYS
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I know we've spent several weeks on Chicago, and that many of you aren't running it — or any marathon. Let me explain why I keep going.
Chicago is one of the seven biggest marathons in the world, and that makes it produce material that outlives its date: how volume gets cut, how nutrition gets rehearsed, how a course gets read. The city changes; the physiology doesn't.
So if today isn't your race, archive it. There will be a day when you have something three weeks out and no idea what to do with those weeks. That day, this email will be sitting in your inbox.
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01 HOW MUCH YOU CUT
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2 min |
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Everything is calculated from your peak week — the highest-mileage week of the whole block. Find that number before you read on.
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WEEK |
CUT |
peak 31 mi
(50 km) |
peak 43 mi
(70 km) |
peak 56 mi
(90 km) |
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Week −3
Sep 21–27 · now
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−20/25% |
24 mi
(38 km)
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33 mi
(53 km)
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42 mi
(68 km)
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Week −2
Sep 28 – Oct 4
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−40% |
19 mi
(30 km)
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26 mi
(42 km)
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34 mi
(54 km)
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Race week
Oct 5–11
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−60% |
12 mi
(20 km)
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17 mi
(28 km)
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22 mi
(36 km)
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Race week doesn't include Sunday's 26.2 mi (42 km). If your peak isn't in the table, multiply: 0.78 · 0.60 · 0.40.
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02 THE SESSIONS THAT STAY
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2 min |
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You cut miles, not pace. These three sessions hold your fitness while the volume falls. If something has to go this week, drop an easy run — never these.
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| D‑14 |
Sunday the 27th · The last real long run
12–14 mi (20–22 km) · 3–4 blocks of 2–2.5 mi (3–4 km) at marathon pace
Easy jog between blocks. Not to exhaust you: to let the body memorise exactly how your goal pace feels with some fatigue on board. Rehearse gels and hydration here — including the caffeinated ones, if you plan to use them.
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| D‑7 |
Sunday October 4 · The rehearsal
7.5–9 mi (12–15 km) · last 2–3 mi (3–5 km) at marathon pace
Keeps your feel for pace alive without leaving fatigue behind. Run it as if it were the 11th: same time, same breakfast, same shoes, same kit.
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| D‑6→1 |
Race week · Tone only
Runs of 3–5 mi (5–8 km) · 4–6 build-ups of 15–20 seconds
Those build-ups are what stop the legs switching off. Saturday the 10th: a 15-minute shakeout, very easy, with 3–4 short build-ups, then rest.
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What you don't do in these three weeks
Don't make up missed workouts. It's the most common taper error: seeing the gaps in recent weeks and wanting to fill them now. The load you remove in these three weeks isn't negotiable or recoverable — it's exactly when the body consolidates the months behind it.
And don't debut shoes. Your race pair should already have 40–50 mi (60–80 km) on it.
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| Thu 8 |
Carb loading begins, progressively. Low fibre: less raw veg, legumes and whole grains. |
| Fri 9 |
The bulk of the load. Hydrate with electrolytes, not just water. |
| Sat 10 |
Expo early: grab the bib and leave. It isn't three hours of walking the stands. 15-minute shakeout. Full kit laid out the night before, gels numbered by the time you'll take them. Light dinner, no experiments. |
| SUN 11 |
Breakfast 3 hours before, the one you rehearsed. At Grant Park 90 minutes before your corral — security is strict and bags must be clear. |
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04 WHAT ONLY HAPPENS IN CHICAGO
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1 min |
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Three things a generic taper doesn't account for, and that decide races on this course:
1. Your watch will lie to you in the Loop. Between miles 12 and 14, around LaSalle Street and the high-rises, GPS drops and you'll see paces that aren't real. Practise this week: run 1 mi (1.6 km) without looking at the watch and guess your pace before you check.
2. The flat opening invites the mistake. Going out 15–25 seconds per mile faster than planned feels easy through Lincoln Park and gets collected at mile 20.
3. Roosevelt Road, mile 26. After 26 flat miles, that short rise hits the head harder than the legs. Arriving with something left turns it into a formality.
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05 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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1 min |
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Confession: I left the quote of the week out of yesterday's edition. Here it is today — and I think it lands better here than it would have there.
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"When choosing a new habit many people seem to ask themselves, 'What can I do on my best days?' The trick is to ask, 'What can I stick to even on my worst days?'"
JAMES CLEAR · 3-2-1, September 17, 2026
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🌱 The taper in life
I've spent two days writing about why removing load makes you faster. And the whole time I kept thinking about the obvious: this isn't only training.
We all carry peak weeks. Work, travel, the house, the phone that never stops. And instead of cutting, we add — because adding feels productive and cutting feels like giving up.
The taper teaches something else. Today's three rules work just as well off the road: drop the volume, keep the intensity where it matters, don't change the frequency. Fewer things, with the same care, every day.
And that's where Clear closes the loop. What carries a marathon isn't the heroic week — it's what you could repeat on your worst days. The same is true of everything else.
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📖 The full article · logistics, hotel, corrals and weather |
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How to pick lodging with train access, what to expect from an October that can swing from 46 °F (8 °C) to 75 °F (24 °C) depending on the year, and the detail on all 20 aid stations.
🇺🇸 Read the full calendar → 🇪🇸 En Español →
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📄 Didn't grab yesterday's PDF? It has the printable 21-day calendar, with boxes for every session and a column for your waking pulse. Download →
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Which corral are you in on the 11th?
Reply with your corral or wave. And if your peak week doesn't look like any column in the table, send me the number and I'll adjust it for you.
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The hard block is already done. What's left is collecting on it. See you tomorrow. |
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Coach Henri
USATF · TrainingPeaks · Certified Functional Strength Coach
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