Taper Time

I did it! I am in the last two weeks of my training program. It is so crazy how fast this has gone. I mean, it felt like it was never going to end when I started, but now that it's almost over I realize how fast time has flown by. Isn't that how it always is?

I ran my last ten miles yesterday. Because I had to work, I wasn't able to run in the morning like I prefer. It was really hard to get my butt in gear after working. I took a two hour "break from life" and headed out as the day started to cool off. My mother is a saint and rode her bike with me the entire ten miles. She said it's nice because it takes a lot of control to ride that slowely. Plus, mother-daughter talk time is the best! It was a really great run. Halfway through I had some strawberry bananna GU, which I think tastes amazing. Honestly, I really like that stuff. GU is an energy gel (kind of like condensed Gatorade) that replaces your glycogen, which is kind of like a long-term energy storage and is made by the liver and muscles. By the last mile of my run, my knees really began to hurt. I know that this is a side effect of running. You can't really avoid it, so I just iced my knees when I got home. Now I'm hoping for the best!

Since Saturday was my last long run, it's taper time! In order to rest up your muscles before a race, athletes take a period of time to slow down before race day. And yes, I consider myself and athlete. You have no right to challenge me until you have run a half-marathon or greater. Anyway, for a half-marathon, the recommended taper is two weeks. I will, however, be running a 10k next weekend (six miles). My mother and sister have been training for this for twelve weeks and I decided to run it with them. I wanted to get a "practice race" in before my half-marathon.

A lot of runners have a hard time with tapering. Probably because they get the feeling that they are going to gain weight or lose muscle mass before the race. Of everything I've read, you won't lose anything you've worked for in two weeks. I will have no problem taking it easy for the next few days. It will be nice to run three miles instead of six, and six instead of ten.

Of course, as I get closer to race day I think of everything that I might have done wrong during my training. When starting I had no idea what I was doing. I just began running. As I look back, I realize that I should have paced myself. Every run I've been running at an easy speed for me. I should have done fast runs, slow runs, and some runs in between. But whatever. Another thing that drove me crazy at first was when I had to skip a run because I was busy. I soon learned that in order to be a happy racer I had to give myself some leaway. We can't all be hardcore trainers. For my first race, I'd say that I've had a very successful training.

It's probably crazy to think ahead to another race before I've finished this one. But now that I've gotten this far and realized that I can do it, I can't imagine not doing a full marathon. I'm not talking about in the next six months or anything, but in five years? Yes, I can see myself crossing the finish line of a marathon five years from now. In the meantime, I'll focus on my speed. I can't imagine running for six hours!

My race is in thirteen days. That is so crazy! I don't know what I'm going to do when my race is over. I feel like I've been putting all of my energy and time into training. As much as I have enjoyed having something to work towards, I can't imagine being a die heart racer. Living from race to race does not sound like something I would enjoy.

Wish me luck! And happy training.