It’s probably not a good idea to change up your running philosophy during a marathon taper, but that’s kind of what I’ve done. I’ve run 12 straight days. That’s significantly longer than any other consecutive streak I’ve had in the past, but before coming to any snap conclusions about how I’m overtraining at a crucial recovery time, let me be clear about what this streak has entailed. I am still tapering, and my weekly running totals have declined the last couple of weeks, as they should. I’ve run a handful of little 1 mile “jogs” over the last twelve days, and I will not run anything longer than 4 or 5 miles this week.

Also, this little change in strategy didn’t happen on a complete whim. I’ve long known that running sooner, rather than later, after a hard run helps me recover. My muscles get tight a I get more sore if I completely stop running for a day or two after hard efforts. I’ve known this for quite some time, and have tried to pursue a “run everyday” philosophy in the past. It’s never stuck. Until now, I guess.

I wrote the first part of this post last night (Tues night). This morning I woke up feeling pretty lousy. Why is it that every time I think I’ve latched onto something good, things seem to fall apart. (Wow, did that sound depressing?)

So, now I’m in a quandry. Do I run my 3-4 miles today as planned? Am I getting sick? Should I move to Sweden?

Speaking of questions, have you noticed that “paper or plastic” has now been replaced with “would you like a bag?” What will it be next, “would you like your change?” Oops, that’s already happened with the “would you like to donate to . . .”

I always walk out with no bag and no change.

Enough wandering - it’s Wednesday and I’m running a marathon on Sunday. I feel completely not ready. My legs feel heavy. I feel heavy. I’ve completely forgotten everything positive about the last few months.

So, as a reminder:

• I’ve run 3 consecutive 100+ mile months
• I ran a 20 mile run, a 1/2 marathon race and a 22 mile run on consecutive Saturdays.
• I ran every inch of the marathon course in training
• I ran in the rain, in the dark and in the cold (relatively)
• I PRed in the 1/2 marathon
• My body is READY FOR THIS RACE

OK, time to go out to make it 13 days in a row.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.