I’m just under a week out now from the Philadelphia Marathon on the 22nd, and I certainly hope that the weather is as beautiful next weekend as it was this weekend (mid 50’s morning, upper 60’s afternoon). The long range forecast for next weekend in Philly is showing a 47 degree start, and 56 degree daytime high, which isn’t too bad although I can translate it that there doesn’t appear to be a cold spell coming. I’ve read that some Philly marathons have been real cold, others mild and others were quit warm, this seems like it might turn out to be a mild one.

So as I head into my taper week for the race, I always remind myself of some tips that I use for tapering (based on my experience):

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 .. focus on things like what your pace will be, the image of crossing the finish line, the scenery during the race, 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 the 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 but have to be flexible either way.

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.

I’ve posted different variations of these tips before, so its nothing new, but to write it all out again on the blog keeps it in my head. I do need to rest up this week though because as I finished up my 10 miler this morning, my left groin muscles were real sore and achey. Its probably due to the hills and speedwork i’ve been doing over the last few days, so the cutback will be nice.

I picked up a new mid-layer wicking shirt today when I was out, along with the new skull cap for next weekend. I will probably use a throw-away sweatshirt to start the race, along with the new midlayer and a base layer. The skull cap and my gloves for the start as well. I figure that with it being in the mid to upper 40’s to start, it’ll be cold at the start but will warm up fast, but this will cause me to strip off layers as the day goes on.

It was funny, but when I was looking for some stuff in one of my dressers, I found a whole slew of old CD’s that got buried when I moved last week. I’ve been craving new music as I run, and instead of just buying from Itunes, I pulled in about another 4-5 hours of music from old CD’s and recordings that I had. Some of it is music I may or may not listen to, but at least its an option. I went out on EMusic last night because I got a free trial from the Baltimore Marathon expo, and honestly, I canceled the free trial about an hour after I signed up. They have no older music … and their search browser was terrible. Maybe I was missing something, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked.

The other notable thing I did in my boredom this weekend was to officially decide on next years racing schedule. I haven’t yet registered for races yet, but expect to within a week. I definitely will be at the Ocean Drive marathon in late March, but the rest of the schedule is pending I guess … I intend to maybe do some smaller races through the month of December as well, I have some fliers for some local races I can do, just have to get there I guess.

So anyway, my goal is to stay loose and limber this week as I wind down the miles … keeping away from the snacks is going to be a struggle, but i’m working hard on it. I CAN’T afford to put on any weight….