Taper Madness

It was just a matter of time until I lost the grip on reality during the taper, I guess. The only surprise is that I managed to hold on until this week. I aggravated the symptoms by doing a 3-days carbs depletion phase before I start eating anything that doesn’t move fast enough tomorrow. I know, I know, you generally read these days that a depletion phase is unnecessary and won’t have any real effect. To be honest, I decided to do it when my weight went up from around 142 (where it had been since I recovered from pneumonia) to 145 last week, and for some reason I really wanted to lose those extra pounds again. Well, I did weigh myself this morning and I’m back at 142, but if that’s just part of the natural up-and-down swings of body weight or if the depletion had an effect I cannot tell. What I can tell is that I’m hungry and grumpy and can’t wait for tomorrow, and that I’m unlikely to ever try that again.

There was some running involved as well, short runs at surprisingly high pace with not much effort. The clocks went forward on Sunday, so when I woke on Monday morning I was still too tired to get up for 6 miles, and decided to skip the run and do it on Tuesday instead. However, 10 minutes later I was wide awake and decided to go out after all, but cut it to 5 miles due to time constraints. Sub-8 mile pace has hardly ever felt so easy (I think I felt like that before Loch Ness), and I did surprise myself with the low heart rate. That’s good.

Tuesday was another 0, and today I ran 7 miles, and again I was just jogging along at sub 8-pace. I did add 3 half-mile pickups on the way back home, which explains the higher heart rate. Those last two runs put some dangerous thoughts into my head, maybe I should try to run faster than 8-minute-miles on Sunday; after all, they felt so easy. But 39 miles is a very, very long way, and I don’t think storming off like a man possessed is the ideal strategy to run an ultra. If I can keep myself in check for the first 26 miles, I can still increase the effort over the last, brutally hilly 13 miles, and storm over the Hell of The West at 7:00 pace like Aisling is prone to do. Yeah, right, dream on.

Normally I would come up with an analysis of my training at that stage, but I think there isn’t much point, because it was so disrupted by the pneumonia in January. In the last few days I got asked a lot if I think I’ve recovered from that. Well, of course I think so, otherwise I wouldn’t try to run an ultra, but there’s nothing that I can do about the missed chunk of training. Besides, there will be a second major race in my calendar this spring, maybe I’ll write a summary then.

Tomorrow and Friday are 0 days, and on Saturday I’ll try the West Australian carboloading workout. I hope I won’t pull a muscle.

My right knee hurts, as did my left shin this morning. I presume these are taper-induced phantom pains.

We’re off to Clifden on Friday, and if that Internet Café there is still open, I might write a few lines. Otherwise you’ll hear from me again from the other side.

31 Mar

5 miles, 37:15, 7:27 pace, HR 146

2 Apr

7 miles, 53:05, 7:35 pace, HR 153