So now that the long miles are over, its time again to concentrate on tapering. I’m once again doing only a 1 week taper before Saturdays Baltimore Marathon .. I completed my last real mid-long of 10 miles today and expect to get about 19 more miles in before Saturday, so that is quite a drop in mileage compared to what i’d normally be doing if I wasn’t tapering.

I’ve continually written about what my goals are to a successful marathon taper, so again, i’ll share them:

1. Try not to stress over things you cannot control (a good example is that the weather will be what it is …prepare for anything and make the most of whatever is thrown at you). So far this year, I have trained in the heat, the cold, the rain, thunderstorms .. you name it. If you trained for things you cannot control, you have NOTHING to lose!

2. Don’t change your routine or try anything new. (that means foods, shoes, supplements, workouts etc.) You’ve made it this far doing things a certain way, don’t try to change the routine now. The tendency during tapering is to break your normal routine, whether its getting up early, eating good, going to bed early, etc … you’re body needs that routine, stick to it!

3. Keep yourself safe and be smart .. for example, don’t go walking around the house barefoot in the dark because you don’t want to break a toe or get a major bruise or fall down the steps or something. Also, don’t go out and decide its time to paint the house or re-shingle the roof or something since you have all this “free time”, it never leads to anything good.

4. Keep the marathon on your mind even though you’re not running as much .. focun on things like what your pace will be, the image of crossing the finish line, etc.

5. Be realistic in all your expectations in a marathon. One good example that I’ve learned is that you can’t expect to go out and run faster than what you trained for. There is no “race day magic” that will allow you to run 20-30 seconds per mile faster for the entire 26.2 miles .. or to keep a faster pace than you can handle.

5. Remember to take some time to be objective about your fitness and be prepared to adjust to race day conditions. Remember that I said in number 1 that things will be what they will be, so be flexible. Not every race is the perfect race as much as you want it to be. I’ve had GREAT marathons, and BAD marathons .. all for different reasons, so you can’t predict it.

6. Don’t wait to plan your logistics around the race, this includes travel, packing for the race, pre-race and post-race locations, etc. Know where you are going, how to get there, the packet pickup time, where bag dropoff is, etc … Trust me, running around at the last minute only makes the nerves worse… I stressed out terribly at the MCM last year over this, and it didn’t help that it was raining like cats and dogs the day before…

7. Remember to always TRUST YOUR TRAINING! You did the miles and the workouts, and if you feel you’ve accomplished something, you have, and believe me, you’ll be fine!

9. Don’t worry about all those aches and pains that seem to be coming out of nowhere for no reason. You’re body is in repair mode during taper, repairing all the muscles and ligaments for many weeks of pounding the pavement, its natural to feel achy.

10. WATCH YOUR DIET! Don’t go on a diet thinking that you can lose a couple pounds, or don’t think that you can continue to eat like crazy like you were in your maximum mileage week. Remember that you still need calories for recovery during this time, so you can’t fast, but you also stand to put on weight if you’re not careful.

Many of these goals have been written before, but I like to look at them everytime i’m in this phase, because they really do help. If you have a tip that you always follow during tapering, post a comment and share it, i’m always looking for tips from others …

Anyway, I decided to look back at my training since the second week of May when I started the fall training .. and in looking at it, its been a good year so far, here’s a quick summary of my findings:

1. I’ve completed 1250 miles (an average of 56 miles per week)
2. I’ve run in 4 different states this summer (PA, NJ, CT, MD)
3. I’ve done 12 runs of 20 miles or more
4. I’ve burned out 5 pairs of shoes
5. I’ve run through at least 12 rain storms and 2 thunderstorms … ran through heat up to 83 degrees and cold down to 39 degrees (no snow though). I should’ve recorded the humidity, because I know I had some pretty humid days.
6. Was sick once (week 1) and had 5 minor injuries (which didn’t slow me down)

I could go on and on, but I think they are the high level highlights .. and to think, the training isn’t over yet, we have 6 more weeks after next weekend until Philly .. so more stats to come…

Congratulations to everyone who has raced this weekend or has made it this far for a marathon next weekend! Marathon fever is in the air …