It’s official: I’m pooped and so ready to dial back.  I was asked a couple posts back about my taper plans so I linked to a graphic of my penciled-in schedule, it has since changed considerably.  Mostly because after last Saturday’s MP run and then Sunday’s 20, the next few days had my calf complaining to me, so I had to baby it which meant lowering the mileage at the beginning of the week and going slower throughout.  I did get a pretty good tempo run done but that was it as far as quality.  The schedule went like this:

Mon: 7 recovery (8:56)
Tues: 9 pouring rain, windy and hurting calf (8:58)
Wed:  13 slow again because of the calf (9:01)
Thurs: Off (enough of the calf, heal already)
Fri: 8 w/4tempo (calf was good, tempo was a bit slower than HP though @ 7:21s)
Sat: 6 recovery (8:51)
Sun: 17 (9:05s, slowest LR this cycle)

Today’s 17 was quite a tough one, it’s warm now so I ended up taking my shirt off on the way back, but the bottom line was I felt tired in legs, body and mind.  I had planned to do 4MP but I knew that was not going to happen. I did 1, lol, but it was 70 degrees by that time and my big toes were really unhappy (they’re both bruised now and I had to stick a needle under the nails to drain them before the run…nice, huh?) so I wasn’t sad about cutting the MP miles, more like I’m happy to know I’ve reached the topping point and that I will most assuredly benefit from two weeks of tapering.

As for my big toes, it’s insanely irritating to have this nail bruising/blistering happening now, but I guess in one way it’s good, hopefully the blisters will harden the toes up within the next couple weeks.  I attribute it to all my LRs being done in the trails, more footwork and ups and downs than any other cycle, so again, it was for the good, I just wish it didn’t hurt.

Hey to Steph (or was it Linds? they’re identical twins), it was cool to see you out there today, you looked good!  Funny about the orange Philly Distance Run shirt, I must have seen 50 people wearing one this morning.

Interactions this week
Ignore this if you read my Facebook updates, but I had a couple entertaining bouts of human contact this week.  On Monday’s recovery, there were 4 college rowers in the river who burst into an acapella rendition of Sheena Easton’s “Morning Train” then waved at me and wished me a good run.

Not two minutes later, I heard a double boom from what I call “Dead Man’s Curve”, a curve in the road near the bike path, but hidden by a fence, and every time it rains, I seem to see the tail end of a wreck.  So this was a double wreck caused by a line of cars sitting behind a wreck that had already happened. Triple wreck!  Hoping everyone was ok.

Then the next day, it was pouring rain and windy and I was feeling pretty crappy but as I neared home, a man under an umbrella yelled out “Dedication!” to me.  What an unexpected present that was.  Suddenly, everything was made right.

I want to spread that word to you all, too, because every single one of you who read this blog sweat, work hard and go the extra mile in some form or another and it’s too easy to take ourselves for granted.  It makes no difference how fast you are, if you win awards or not, be proud of yourselves for having dedication to do something that most people never dare to do…get up off their asses.

And with that, I’m going to sit on mine for the next two weeks.  In my mind, anyway.

17 Responses to “Taper: My New BFF”