ta·per
ˈtāpər
noun
- 1.diminish or reduce or cause to diminish or reduce in thickness toward one end.
Runners usually cut back mileage (or taper) one day to
three weeks (depending on race distance) before a big race. Tapering
helps muscles rest so that they are ready for peak performance on race day.
What is it about taper weeks that make you feel like you want to workout three times a day - but of course you can't because it's a taper week? It must be the same rule that once you are injured and can't run in the time that you want to run the most and wake up at 5:30am only to not be able to get up and go. Healthy? You snooze til 8. It also fills your head with questions and most answers are filled with doubt. You feel invincible one minute then doubtful you can even finish the task you have been training all summer for. Things you haven't done seem possible and things you train for seem impossible. Do speed work because I have a sneaking suspicion I am fast as lightening? Sure! Swim 400m that I have been training to complete? I hope I don't drown. The entire notion of tapering is completely logical. I perform much better on rest and I know my body needs it to do and feel well. My mind is a bag of crazy filled with equal part doubts and confidence. Split personality week is what I should call me tapering.three weeks (depending on race distance) before a big race. Tapering
helps muscles rest so that they are ready for peak performance on race day.
And to be clear and make things more crazy up in my head? I am hardly even tapering! I've broken three of my personal taper rules in the four days I have been tapering:
Don't do anything new.
I tried something new. I love tying something new - it keeps my mind from being bored and it keeps my body guessing and getting better with change. My mother recently won a Beachbody gift package at one of my running events. I snagged the home workout DVD from it - 21DayFix workout by Autumn Calabrese. I started in on Friday. I didn't get to the gym to do my usual spin class so by 4 that afternoon I was really jonesing to do something. And there sat the little DVD with Autumn staring up at me. Popped it - and 30 minutes later I was done. It wasn't that hard compared to my usual workouts - but it had more stregth moves using dumbbells that I am used to - so even thought at the time it felt "easy" - I still woke up sore because my muscles hadn't moved that way recently. Normally that awesome - a little sore always reminds me I have worked and that my muscles are kept on guard and growing ever so slowly bigger than tiny. But in a taper I am trying to avoid being sore and I actually want my body to be on auto pilot for once.
Taper means to lay off - so, you know, lay off.
I went for my longest run and longest bike ride in the same weekend and it happened to be just seven days out of tri-day. See, while I am tapering for my first ever triathlon, I am also still in training for my half marathon in three weeks. So I feel pressure to lay of the gas and also keep moving so I don't lose precious full weeks for the half-training. Hence the long run the weekend before my first tri. The long bike was just plain dumb. I am grossly undertrained on the bike and I pulled a rookie mistake by just going out and making sure I can in fact do the distance needed next week. I can, thank goodness. But I am hoping it was hard on my quads because of the run the day before because if that's not the reason - I am in trouble. Luckily, my swim form is so piss poor that I barely use my largest asset (literally) - my quads - while swimming so my legs shouldn't be too fatigued (or as fatigued as an 11 mile run made them) when I hit the 11 mile bike this weekend.
Eat the way you have trained.
And lastly, my diet is all over the place - but mostly located in the dessert menu. I've noticed lately that the numbers on the scale are going in the wrong direction for me lately (please be muscle, please be muscle), and I don't think that it's muscle. After really working hard to control my [bad] eating habits this spring - I feel off the wagon, got dragged underneath it, and can not get a grip back on since the summer hit. I've felt it too - I don't have enough energy to get the work in I want. And mentally I am feeling "fat". I say mentally because I know I am not technically fat, but that doesn't always matter to me - I feel one way or another and while it may mean no change to the scale my mind needs an adjustment and I need to feel healthier - and then in turn be healthier. I plan on working on my eating soon - famous words, huh? - but I keep sort of unnecessarily putting it off until this tri so I am not eating something new right before I do something new. I am sure this is just an excuse but because I know as soon as this tri is over - its go time for the diet change - I seem to be ingesting everything I possibly can. It's like my last supper - except it's dessert and their are several not just one.
I feel like the days are crazy long and I want to run and go to the gym multiple times a day - and when I am not doing that I would like to drink coffee and dunk Oreos in it. Taper weeks are a mind game - one of which I am currently losing. Four more days and the restrictions, worries, doubts are gone. Every move I make is reminding me of this weekend. Can I go for a bike ride with my kids? I have a tri this weekend. Can I go to the gym? I have a tri this weekend. Can I eat ice cream? I have a tri this weekend. Can I get enough sleep? I have a tri this weekend. Inhale crazy, exhale crazier. Four more days.
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