Taper Week 2 - Getting Antsy

It's hard to believe this is week 2 of my three-week taper for the Ice Age 50K already.  It's getting close.  For so long I have thought of this race in terms of being "out there," so far in the future that it wasn't really worth thinking about.  Now however things have changed.  It can't be said to be in the distant future anymore; in fact it is right around the corner. It's only 11 days away!  I am at that point where whenever I think about how many days are left until race day, my belly does a little flop.

So far week 2 definitely seems different from week 1 of this taper.  During the first week, the days were defined by aches and pains.  I sure felt a lot of them.  I don't know if they were just ghost pains, or the creaking and complaining of a body insulted that is finally trying to pull itself back together again after a lot of long training miles.  In any event, if last week was characterized by physical markers, this week seems to be defined by mental ones.  I am getting antsy.

Physically, I am starting to feel pretty good. (Knocking on wood.) Mentally, though, I am kind of wishing that race day were here.  More than that, I am plagued with this feeling that I should be doing something.  I don't know if it is because of the reduced miles; cutting out of all cross-training, strength-training, and yoga efforts; or the fact that I just seriously have more time on my hands, but I keep thinking there is something that I should be doing.

Training-wise, I am done.  I did the long miles, I did the short miles.  I did the best I could not to hurt myself while logging all those miles.  Last week, I cut down to 70 percent of maximum mileage for this training cycle.  This week, I am down to 50 percent.  That means yesterday's short run really was short - three miles!  Next week, I just plan a couple of easy, three-mile runs and then that's it.  Done.  For better or for worse.  Done.