Taper Week IS Training

If you have been training with an eye on a specific race, you have probably followed some kind of plan or program. (Please say you have!)  Your training plan will most likely conclude with a week of reduced mileage and training intensity, known as your taper week ( maybe longer, if you are competing in a full marathon).

Even though you’ve  have been training hard, you may still harbor some doubt that you can do this thing. You may be tempted to sneak in a little extra training for good measure. Don’t – and here’s why:

•  Even if you sat around all week doing nothing, you would not markedly affect your fitness level.
•  Even if you add another workout or a few extra miles, you will not markedly improve your fitness level.
• If you do too much, you may actually hurt your performance.

 The ENTIRE basis of training - incrementally increasing time, distance, and speed – is to stress your body. It is in the recovery and rest periods that your muscles actually repair themselves, building and strengthening so they are prepared for the next effort.  Your muscles are like those scientists that made the Bionic Man: “We will make him better, stronger, faster.”

 Taper week is time that your body will recover and repair the micro-tears and stresses imposed by training, and a little more of this is exactly what you need to perform your very best on race day. Do not dismiss the power of the taper week. You will be amazed!

Taper week is my favorite week of a training program – not just because I get to “slack off” and still stay on plan – but it is a great time to reflect on the work I’ve done and start visualizing the race and how good it’s going to feel to cross that finish line. Running is as much a mental discipline as a physical one, so use your taper week to rest your body and get you head on straight.

Preparing for Race Day

Last call!

If you know what that means, then you know what I mean. If you’ve never actually experienced last call, let me school you here. Last call is that point in the evening when the bartender gives you fair warning to drink up, pay up and get out. You have officially run out of time to order another round or get a little something to eat.

Two to three weeks out from race day, you can consider that last call has been made. You have been working out your training plan. You (hopefully) have  been eating a little better, found some comfortable gear, and are getting excited about the big day.

You may be getting so excited that you start thinking, “Dang, I deserve a whole new outfit just for race day!” Or you may start obsessing over the perfect pre-race breakfast, which you have determined may or may not not be your usual bowl of  Cheerios.

Careful, sister. Now is NOT the time to make any changes – it’s too late. The bartender says, “If you don’t work here or sleep with someone who works here, you’re done.” That’s after-hours speak for: if you’re not an experienced runner that has tested that breakfast bar, sports drink or brand of socks in training, it will have to wait.

Stick to the plan. Stick to what you know, because on race day there will be enough new, different and anxiety provoking. You don’t need to pile on with a breakfast that might wreak havoc on your digestive system or new clothes that chafe in places you’ve never chafed before. You want to free yourself from every variable and worry that could distract you from giving your best effort. You’ve worked too hard and come too far to get derailed by something foolish now.

I met a woman at the start line of the Zooma Austin Half Marathon, who somehow managed to forget to pack her running bra. Now you know how passionate I am about the right bra, so you can imagine my dismay as she tells me she stopped at Wal-Mart to buy a new one. Not only was it a low-rent bra, but a new bra on race day.

Red alert, people!

When I saw her at the finish line, she was the embodiment of misery – her performance sadly hindered by painfully distracting chafing and blisters. Do not repeat her race experience.

You can’t control the weather, the crowds or your monthly cycle, but you can be reasonably sure that you know what feels good in your stomach and what feels good on your body when you run. That, and a little race day adrenaline, will give you freedom to fly.

Then you can think about treating yourself to something new – something pretty, pampering or decadent. You deserve it.