This was my first week of tapering and I’m not at all sorry I skipped roughly half of my runs. Typically when it comes to tapering for a race I usually do less than the plan calls for. I don’t really have a great reason for that but it has worked well for me in the past. This plan had me running 4 times a week in training which I was okay with but in taper time I knew I wanted to run at least a little less. I did the same thing this week and I feel great about that choice. Which is to say this will be a short one, no need to get a snack.
Wednesday (5k and 6.5k): These runs turned into a lovely 8k mushroom walk. I’ve been listening to podcasts on my occasional walks and this time was no different. Not much to say except that while the yield is slowing down a bit it’s absolutely nutty I’m still getting some into October! Also I never knew until today that the Canadian parliament was bombed, you do learn something new every day!
6.5k run (skipped): We did have a lot of rain this week but I was always going to skip this one anyway. I’ve been putting off going back to one customer’s house because I know there is a good chance I’m going to have a long list to tackle once I do. Since this whole running thing is coming to a close I returned there this past week. This was the first week in months that I didn’t have to skip some work hours to run. PS it felt like a long work week!
Saturday 16k: Every year the ride for cancer goes by my house and along my usual long run route. I don’t begrudge the riders this day but depending on the time you head out there can just be too many to deal with. So I waited until later in the day around 2:30 so the majority would be past and varied my route. That also allowed my to buy water along the way at a food truck without a mask and head down a really stunning route. I posed for my picture in a really great spot I don’t regularly get to that often. When I got there it was like someone painted the sky for me.
This run was great and pretty easy. After an easy week I felt a bit like I had someone else’s legs. It also got me wondering if I could break 5 hours at some point in a more traditional race… Heading off over ground that had absolutely no relation to race day was also a pretty good idea because if it went poorly it wouldn’t freak me out the following week. Even though I headed out this way to skip dealing with throngs of bikers I might save this taper tip for next training cycle too.
This week I really didn’t come close to covering the suggested distance turning two runs into one shorter walk and skipping another entirely. When it comes to tapering I tend to think of it as mostly about rest and listening to you body. We should always be listening to our bodies but in the heavy training weeks we can’t always do that. Those heavy weeks tend to make me want to rebel in taper time and do a lot of sitting, which I did. I did make sure to get that long run in though! You can check out the plan I’m using here. If you want a sneak peak of my training follow me on instagram! Are you training for a marathon this year? How is your training going so far? Leave it in the comments below!
Sweat Sweetly 
