Taper Tantrum

There is now less than a week until my marathon- and I can hardly believe that it's finally almost here. I run so many miles (at least a thousand this year), trained for so many hours, and put so much mental sweat into this race, let alone all the general nutritional preparation and decreased social life (ha).  But the biggest thing about the final week is that you basically can no longer prepare; it's already essentially already done.  The way you treat your body for the final week is, however, extremely important to being able to perform on race day. As I once read a coach say in a running magazine: the hay is already in the barn, you just have to stack it.  During this last week, you don't go on some last long runs to make sure you are ready- far from it. Instead, you have to make yourself just rest, sleep a lot, and wait. And eat more carbs.

So what happens during this time? Shouldn't it be a nice break? Well, not necessarily.  In fact, marathoners often call how they feel during this time a "taper tantrum." Like other runners, running is usually my distraction, my release from stress at work, my time to get my thoughts in order. I'm also an endorphin junkie at this point. I'm used to running at least 30 miles a week, sometimes as much as 50 in a seven day period, and now I had to bring it down to 7 total for the whole week.  I feel like I am chomping at the bit, feeling more and more nervous about the race, yet unable to release most of that nervous energy.  What's more, the very short runs sometimes even don't feel that enjoyable, because I am used to warming up for the first few miles.  I have to say, a couple of those three mile runs have just felt- awkward, as if I was no longer quite able to get fully into my rhythm. I also feel like I have had so much time on my hands- especially on the weekend, because I haven't been either preparing for or recovering from a 14-20 mile run.  I actually cleaned and organized my apartment for about 10 hours on Saturday as a result.

Flash had warned me that tapering would be difficult, and I knew it would be- but it's quite different when you are actually experiencing it.  It kind of feels like I'm being wound up like a spring, like my muscles are itching to really run.  To tell the truth, Flash has been having an even more difficult time with tapering than I have- he went on an unscheduled jog last weekend, and he ran the three miler yesterday reallly fast.  I have been having a pretty difficult time making myself only do what's on the schedule, but I'm doing it. I know that the people who created it know what they are talking about.

Five more days.