Early Taper Crisis

In autumn 2005, when preparing for the Three Country Marathon, the first marathon I trained properly for, I could not wait for the taper. My legs had been aching every day, I had numerous niggles, and I was probably never far off the next injury. In fact, shin splints did put quite some dent into my preparation. I was so happy when, with 3 weeks to go, I could finally relax a bit, and the reduced mileage preceding the marathon helped in getting myself sorted for the race.

Things have changed since then.

I've come to hate the taper. I want to run my usual miles. I'm a runner, I want to be out there at the crack of dawn, witness the sunrise, and enjoy my me-time. Instead, I have to scale back. I don't even get any additional sleep because I tend to wake at the same time and end up staring at the bedroom ceiling for an hour until it's finally time to rise.

Only three days into the taper, I'm already succumbing to the madness that comes with it, despite having run decent mileage today. The next 12 days are going to be taxing.

I had two easy days on Monday and Tuesday, 6 miles each. On Monday I took it easy, tried to enjoy the relaxed pace, and was back home all too soon. On Tuesday I expected to feel good; instead the legs were stiff and tired and running felt clumsy. Where that came from, I do not know. From the heavier shoes? Or the lower temperatures? There clearly are things I still don't understand about running. Maybe it was just a bad day, and it's better to have that now rather than on race day.

Today I ran around Caragh Lake for the last time before the marathon, and after the two easy days I felt full of energy, even though the weather has turned, the wind was blowing and the rain was really heavy at times. The plan was to run the first 10 miles at around 8:00 pace, which requires a bit more effort than expected because of the big hills on the way. The last 5 miles were at marathon pace, 7:10. It went pretty well, in fact I had to slow down a few times because the legs threatened to take off on more than one occasion. The last 5 miles were a bit tougher, and I got really annoyed with myself for losing concentration half way through and slowing down to 8:00 pace again, albeit on an uphill stretch. I probably shouldn't have, but I made up for that over the next mile, and I guess that's why the pace felt tougher than it should have been. Also, the road is quite undulating over those miles, which slightly increases the required effort. Then again, the marathon route isn't exactly flat either.

Whatever, on average I ran at just the expected pace and I was still in good shape at the end, wishing that I would have time to run further despite being soaked to the bones. I know that the weather forecast so far ahead of the date is utterly worthless, but I can't help but peek anyway. On Monday, they predicted sunshine and 19C/66F for 2 June. Yesterday they had changed their minds and predicted rain and wind instead. Today they're back to sunshine and 19C. "You don't know what you're doing" comes to mind. There's still plenty pf time to get it right. Last year it was an unexpectedly hot day. Let's hope for better conditions this time.

19 May

6 miles, 51:20, 8:33 pace, HR 132

20 May

6 miles, 51:12, 8:32 pace, HR 139

21 May

15 miles, 1:55:33, 7:42 pace, HR 152
with 5 miles in 35:47 @ 7:09 pace