Saturday, April 4, 2009

Log Legs and Taper Twinges

So I woke up this morning and was pretty fired up about the upcoming Illinois Marathon. I watched a video of the course and yes, it looks pancake flat. The weather/wind thing still has me a little nervous as you could hear the wind whipping in the video. But it was good. I planned to run my last 12 miler today. The weather is perfect (48) and I am one week out. So I went out the door and an 8:00 pace felt oh so easy. And my HR was nice and low. But by .25 in, I started getting a twinge in my R front calf muscle. Then I felt a little something in my hip, then my hamstring. Then the bottom of my foot. WTF? Admittedly it started to freak me out some. I slowed down and started worrying (and of course my HR started going through the roof). I literally had to tell myself at least 5 times that this is what happens during the taper. EVERY TIME. It will be fine. I am a veteran at this, but the taper twinges always freak me out. So I did exactly what I should have. I slowed down, cut it short at 5 and decided to do my 12 tomorrow. No need to have a super slow, freak out long run. Unfortunately the weather is supposed to be crappy tomorrow, but I needed to listen to my body first.

Then next week is rest rest rest! I only got up at 4:45 one day this week, but unfortunately I seemed to be up pretty late each night too. Time to start getting serious and getting my mind into this race. I have worked really hard. I am strong. And I am ready.

Speaking of races, hopefully Greg rocked Cherry Blossom today - good luck!

1 comment:

Greg said...

Ah, phantom injuries! I think tapering starts to uncover all those niggles that have been hiding under the general dull pain of weekly mileage.

CB is tomorrow. I did 0.38 in the packet pickup line though -- http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2696916