Taper Madness!

Finally, the hard training is behind me and I am officially in my taper for the Boston Marathon!!! The long runs and track workouts are done, now the fun stuff begins...picking out a race outfit (even though you might not be feeling good - you want to look good, right?), breaking in my race shoes (new white and hot pink tennies), days off, and last, but not least, carb. loading :) One of the best things about training for Boston is that heavy training coincides with the delivery of Girl Scout cookies (and I buy LOTS of girl scout cookies!)

I am half way through my three week taper. I have been gradually decreasing my mileage, but am trying to keep the pace steady. I am starting to feel recovered from my last few tough workouts, including 20 and 22 mile runs and a 1/2 marathon race at my marathon race pace. I feel healthly. Everything has gone as planned. But, at the same time, this is the point where you realize there is really nothing left you can do to make the race go any better. The work is done and you just have to WAIT until race day and see if it all comes together like you hope. This is when the "madness" begins. I have started questioning my months of training and second guessing my strategy. I am feeling minor aches and pains that I have not felt before. I feel like I can barely make it through a 3 mile recovery run. Yup - I've been here before, everyone knows it is a normal part of the taper, so I am not going to freak out:)

I am going into what my running buddies and I jokingly like to call the "pre-race bubble". It is kind of a self-imposed quarantine of sorts. No germs, no sick kids, lots of hand sanitizer, lots of vitamin C, no skiing(or free-falling off lifts) , no ice skating (and falling on my butt), no running near dog parks (was jumped on by a huge dog during my 19 miler at the state park), no high heels (seriously, when was the last time I wore those anyway?), etc.... Anything to stay healthy and un-injured before race day.

This is a day off - yipee - no running, so I think I'll go eat some of those Girl Scout cookies!