Taper Week

I said to Phil yesterday that it was Taper Week, and he was like "What does that mean?"  He never knew that was a thing!  And he's run a bunch of races!  But that's ok because I didn't know what cadence was until a couple of weeks ago when my new watch started tracking it for me.  

So for those of you also not in the running know...

In the context of sports, tapering refers to the practice of reducing exercise in the days just before an important competition. Tapering is customary in many endurance sports, such as long-distance running and swimming. ... The tapering period frequently lasts as much as a week or more.

and

Cadence is how many steps you take per minute.  Your height, weight, leg and stride length and running ability will determine your optimal cadence. Everyday runners generally fall between 160-170 steps per minute, while elite runners strike the ground around 180 steps per minute or higher—with some getting above 200 at their fastest speeds.

So, we are in Taper Week.  That means we are running about 60% of our mileage this week, taking two full rest days before the half-marathon on Sunday, and trying to hydrate and get a lot of nutrients in.  I've been baking superhero muffins and blending beet smoothies from this cookbook, and planning on eating spaghetti and meatballs on Sat night.  Yum!  

Partial Training Plan

Even with five months of training runs under our belt, I am still so nervous for this race!  I don't really like races, too many people, anxiety at the starting line, the pressure to run fast.  Why did I even sign up?  I don't know but every few years I seem to need a big goal to accomplish.  This is the last half-marathon though!  (She types for the third time).  Seriously, I'm getting too old for this, and it actually made me sick of running.  I'm looking forward to a break from forced runs and want to explore biking, group exercise classes, and more weights.  Those cross-training days were my favorite!

We completed our last long-ish run on Saturday, and ran a warmup mile, 6 miles at race pace, and then 2 cooldown miles.  Overall we had a 9:14 pace but I am still sore from that pace.  Ugh.  You'd think I'd be in better shape!  

The three things I am very excited about are:

1) Finishing the race.

2) Eating all the foods and drinks on St. Patrick's Day after the race is finished.

3)  My new sneakers that I'll be running in - hopefully they get delivered today so I can break them in a bit this week.  Wait 'til you guys see them, they are so cute!

It actually makes sense that this half-marathon is on St. Patty's Day because Irish it was over already.  

Too much?  Sorry :)