Did my long run with a friend a few Saturday mornings ago. He’s also tapering for an upcoming marathon, and about half-way through the run, he asked, “you ever have psychological trouble with tapering?” I answered without thinking. “Last time, yeah, it was hard to bring myself to ease up on the miles without being afraid I’d lose fitness. But the taper worked well for me last time, and the weather has been so bad, I’ve had no problem cutting my mileage down.” But that wasn’t what he meant. He said he wasn’t sleeping as well as he normally did. And the minute he mentioned that, I realized that I’m not either! Can’t fall asleep until late, restless night, then up staring at the ceiling before the alarm clock goes off. My shoulders and neck are tight, and I’m feeling a bit stressed and worn down when I expected to feel rested and relaxed as a result of easing off on the training miles. Now I know there’re lots of things in the world that could be keeping me up at night. But the truth is, I’ve got good coping mechanisms for all of those things. Just so happens a key one of them is running! Getting used to running all those miles, and then cutting as weeks go on by 10 percent, then 20 and even more on up until race day is a big physiological change. And so maybe as a result I do have psychological problems with tapering after all. Go figure! This last week has been particularly weird; not only have I run fewer times, but when I do run, it’s for fewer miles. Today I’ll do my last three miles before the race. Getting so antsy even the exhaustion of the marathon will seem welcome after the taper.
Tags: marathon running, Running, stress, taper
