20 Miles to Taper

Three weeks from Saturday, I will be running 26.2 miles in the Baltimore Running Festival. It's been a long, interesting preparation, but I'm not quite there yet. That's because this Saturday's 20 miles will be my longest training run yet, and the longest I will complete before October 15th.

Believe it or not, I'm actually pretty excited to run 20 miles. Not only will it give me a pretty good idea of what I'm capable of when it comes to the real deal, but it's also my last run before taper starts! For those of you who have swam or run (I think they do that for track?) competitively, you know exactly what I'm talking about, and you know why I'm excited. For those less in the know, you usually cut back on the length and intensity of your training a couple weeks or so ahead of your championship meet or competition (in this case, my marathon). The idea is that you've already put in the training and built up a certain level of performance over the course of training, and by letting up on your training intensity, you allow your body to relax and recover.

The decreased amount of activity often leads to an increase in energy levels, which is one of the best and worst things about taper. Think of it as compressing a spring (a very powerful spring) over an extended period of time, and then releasing it the day of the big event. As you get further into your taper, your energy levels skyrocket, and it's really hard to sit still. You're accustomed to a certain level of activity, and suddenly you're slowly weening your activity level, but not your energy reserves.

Back to the marathon. I've been reading a lot about the Baltimore Running Festival and every time I do, I get more and more excited about it. As I already explained in a previous post, the turnout for this event (at least from previous runner's accounts) is amazing. It's also making me feel a lot better about the hilliness of the course. There's nothing incredibly steep, just more gradual hills, which is good, because running down steep hills is probably one of my least favorite things to do, while running up a gradual hill isn't too bad.

So that's what I have to look forward to. It's going to be a great experience (probably pretty painful, but hopefully not too much), and I'm looking forward to it. I'll do my best to provide updates each week and of course a play-by-play of my first marathon experience. Stay tuned...