Trust the Taper

It's marathon week here at the House of Carr. Huzzah. The prevailing thoughts here are concerning the weather. Both of my previous treks were subject to rain. This slogs everything down and makes it difficult to get the time I'm hoping for. I'm hopeful that recent Noadic flood-like conditions will have used up our region's allotment of rain. The race will procede regardless, so I just move on.

But six days before the race, it's all about anticipation. Hitting this final week is difficult because you're fully engrossed in tapering. This is the period of time when you scale back your running considerably to give your body time to heal. Where you were once getting in 25-30 miles a week, you're now down between 10-20. Believe it or not, resting is difficult because you start to doubt your ability to do well. The natural inclination is to pick up some miles, but you have to resist. Personally, even though this is my third go-round, I'm starting to feel out of shape. Even though I knew this is how I would feel, I'm struggling.

But tapering is part of nearly every marathon training plan in existence. It's proven to work. So you gotta trust the taper.

Honestly, tapering is probably the fascinating thing about marathon training. The months leading to the race are filled with constant training and then it suddenly stops. But you gotta trust the taper.

So here's to spending a week battling my inner demons before battling the course.