Taper Time

The Chicago Marathon is a week from today. My long runs are done. No more speed drills. It’s taper time!

Today I started week 3 of my 3 week taper. The taper is the last phase of marathon training. If you can really call it training. Over the last 3 weeks of the training plan, the miles steadily decrease. This week I have 3 runs scheduled. 9 total miles. Yes, 9. That is not a typo. I will run 3 miles on Monday, 4 on Thursday, and just 2 on Thursday. Then, my marathon training will be completed.

The taper would seem to be easy. After all, you really don’t have to do much at all. Yet you do. What you do most is run through every detail of the upcoming race weekend in your mind over and over again. And you stress about each and every one of them. Because that’s what runners do. And that’s what I’ve been doing. For example, I have checked the 10 day weather forecast at least twice a day since Thursday, when race day moved to within the 10 day range. And of course it’s different every time I look. And knowing from experience that the further out the date, the less accurate the forecast has done nothing to reduce my obsession.

I bought a new pair of running shorts and a new pair of headphones today. I wasn’t home 10 minutes when I started thinking I should not run a marathon in shorts I’m not used to. And I bought the wrong headphones. Neither purchase really matters in the big scheme of things, but in taper time runners second guess themselves. About everything.

Another taper time problem is dietary. I am at the point where I am still hungry all the time due to the intensity of the last several weeks of training. But I am no longer burning the extra calories. Which gives me one more thing to stress about. How many pounds will I gain between now and race day? Should I cut back on carbs? No, I will need them soon. Run more miles? No, I can’t deviate from the plan. So, I guess I’ll just worry about it. After all, that’s what we do in taper time.