Today I ran into a friend at the grocery store. We started talking about, what else, running. She is in training for a marathon at the end of October and I was telling her about my upcoming race next weekend.
The topic of tapering came up and I told her how difficult the week leading up to a race is for me. There are only a few people, within my circle of friends, who hate tapering as much as I do. I was happy to find out that she has a hard time with it as well. Even though it is a necessary part of the pre-race training, those last 3 days when I want to run but can't, will be very hard mentally for me.
There are some runners who embrace the tapering but I'm certainly not one of them. I'm already counting the number of runs I have left between now and next Saturday (2) and that will make for a long week.
The extra time off will allow me to focus on the race itself and I will use this time to get mentally prepared. I'm going to break the race into 5, 10K "segments." and will not put my music on until I have reached 25K mark. I'm sure I'll be tinkering with my music between now and the start of the race.
I'll also be preparing my "drop bag" for the race. At the 25K turnaround, I will be allowed to place a bag with personal items just in case I'll need it. This will include a pair of socks, some gels,water bottles and probably another pair of shoes (since my trail shoes have a hole in the side). Thankfully the aid stations are well stocked with food, water and electrolyte drinks (Gatoraide).
This weekend I'll be doing some light biking and probably a nature walk with my kids. I hope everyone has a safe Labor Day weekend!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment