After stringing together a good training cycle, I feel ready to run a great race out on the island this coming weekend. With this being a focus race and all, I'm faced with the dreaded tapering period. I've been in tapering mode for a little over a week and frankly, it's no fun. Interesting how I can struggle to get the mileage in during training, but while tapering, feel so anxious. I think that's the point of tapering: to be well rested so that you're anxious to run hard on race day. It was all I could do this last week to take a few days off. It was all I could do to keep my mileage down. It was all I could do to keep my pace down for my Saturday long run (which I failed at doing, btw).
Now that I'm tapering though, I've been thinking about a few things...
I'm looking forward to a brand new experience with this upcoming race: actually racing. Go figure! In reality though, I've gone into all my previous races with only the goal of finishing. First marathon... check. First 50... check. First 100... check. The only exception last year was Speedgoat, which I didn't taper at all for and which I used as a training run, rather than a focus race.
I learned a lot through experience last year. Those lessons have helped me progress to where I am now. It's also been fun sharing my newfound knowledge with my dad (training for his first 50 in June), and my friend Scott (who's running his first 50 this weekend). I've done several runs with each of them this year and they've really helped me maintain my focus and stay consistent, which is something I struggle with.
So this time around I've got no excuses. I'll be running to test my ability and to learn how hard I can push myself. I still plan on enjoying the scenery and camaraderie, but I also plan on testing my limits. I understand that it will certainly be uncomfortable. As crazy as it sounds, that might be what I'm looking forward to most! It should make for an interesting day come Saturday. Good luck to all those running, and hopefully I'll have a PR to report next week.
3 comments:
I know you will have a great race this Saturday. you've put in the time and mileage and now you will get your reward. Good Luck.
Like you, this will be the first 50 miler I've done that I really feel like I'm going to try and race, not just run. I've set really high expectations for myself and I'm really going to do everything in my power to achieve them.
Good luck on Saturday. I'll see you at the starting line. Based on what I think both of our goal times are we should be running a solid chunk of the race together. I look forward to it.
Josh, where's the report? You killed it out there on Saturday. Let's trade numbers, we need to hook up and go running. Email me. craig.lloyd
@gmail.com
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