Taper Thoughts, week 3

Aside from barely running last week, this taper has been pretty uneventful. I'm calm and ready, just waiting for race day to arrive! I expected a lot more taper madness than this.

This week's focus is on rest, hydration, and nutrition.

Yesterday's run was a slog. This concerned me because I expected to feel energized and refreshed by now. In the past two weeks I've only run about 70km. So why did my legs feel so dead yesterday?

I sent a note to another runner whose opinions I respect (and who has a lot more experience and knowledge than I do!). Among other things, he said:

First understand that how you feel is 100% normal and not a sign something is wrong. Get lots of sleep this week, eat properly and trust your training. IMO the three week standard taper DOES allow you to run good races, almost as good as the very best taper, the problem is how it leaves you feeling. Toward the end of the week put your feet up as much as possible, until then you can run lightly: short, quickish fun stuff (favorite short trail run?). Your legs are there, they are just puzzled: they'll know what to do race morning!

Relax your mind a bit, and the body follows better too.

Good advice... and good to know that I'm not abnormal!

So here I sit with a giant bottle of water, trusting that my legs will know what to do on race morning!

In other news, I've lost about 7lb since February. Hopefully I can keep it off after the race, which I think is a good possibility since I plan to jump straight into marathon training!

Let's get this show on the road! :)