YEAH for the taper!

I’ve been waiting for these two weeks for a long time! Good ol’ glorious taper. Today I only had to run 6 miles. Other than the two Fridays before races, I haven’t run less than 7 miles in a day in a LOOONGG time!! Feels great to be done with work, errands, running, etc before it’s extremely late!

I’ve decided to keep my mileage relatively high this week. I tend to taper really quickly. For example, my legs felt awful the week of the 20 mile. I gave myself a light day the Friday before, running 3 miles with striders. The following day, race day, my legs felt great! They weren’t springy like they are after a long taper, but they turned around from being sore/dead to being able to crank out a 2:15 20 miler without too much trouble.

So, with that in mind, I’m altering the plan I’ve been following. Today really only called for 4, but that just seemed too light. I did 6 instead, taking it easy. I checked my Garmin after the run, found I averaged 8:08 pace (felt very easy, terrain was hilly) and my HR was just 160 (my max is 210, so that’s at 65%). I haven’t seen my HR that low in a LOOONGG time, honestly. Most of my easy runs I’m at 175 or higher. My first thought was: did I not have the monitor on correctly? Maybe my watch isn’t reading it right? But, I don’t think that’s the case (at least I hope!). I hope it’s just that I’m just more fit and am not working as hard. Exciting to see!

I’ll keep my mileage at the 50 mile mark this week (keep in mind the long run of 17, which skews things… the rest of the week averages 6.6/day), then cut significantly starting Sunday. I can already feel more energy in my legs, which is exciting!!! 🙂