Michael: Over Tapering?

The rains are ending
Yet already the warm wind
Is bending the trees.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

We’re now just two days away from boarding the bus to begin our journey to our second trail race in Costa Rica, so it’s time to start looking over the checklist and itinerary and packing up.

Of course this is all suppose to be proceeded by a solid training cycle and a well thought out taper. Oops, not very confident I can give either of those boxes energetic checks.

Rain was a little heavier and lasted later in the year than last year limiting my opportunities to get out and ride off some fat. Though maybe this is a plus on the taper side as I did get more rest in between runs.

And speaking of tapering… I’ve laid off much more than usual the past two weeks; though I always feel like more of a slacker when I cut back then a sophisticated athlete doing what’s best to heal and bring strength into my semi-well trained muscles. I suppose this will be a test of a long taper versus my usual one week job.

It’s silly, but I’m even struggling with what rain jacket to bring (It’s a race requirement.). Should I use the faux rain jacket that weighs in at 3 oz. but won’t keep my dry at all, or go with the more heavy duty job that’ll stop the rain on the outside but could have me sweating like a sauna on the inside? Goofy that the weight of these items wears on me when I’m a good 4 lbs. over my ideal race weight.

And to top it off the race organizers just sent an email out this morning warning that it could take 2-2 ½ hours to get from the highway to the less than 10 miles off the highway race start. Really? The race starts at 5:30. That means we’d have to leave our hotel before 3 to get there. That’s got to be wrong. Well, at least will get to figure that one out the day before when we go to packet pick up.

I was hoping that this would be an A race that would pump me up for races later in the states this summer, but instead its become more of a baseline from which to use to develop my next training phase.

My plan now is to cruise through the first half of the race, give it all I’ve got on the long 8 mile climb up to 10,000 ft., then see what I’ve got left for the turn around downhill. Kimme should be somewhere behind me and hopefully that’ll push me through any little grumpy patches I hit along the way.