Tapering Psychology

Tapering is a mixture of doubt, anxiety, and a pinch of fear

Saturday was my last long run before VIM.  I was supposed to do 24 miles, but I called it at 20 because I don't want to be in too much pain.  Even at at 20, I had soreness in my leg, the area below my calf, but above my Achilles.  I haven't been able to log a lot of miles with my bruised ribs.  Although, thankfully, I'm mostly healed.  A little sore doing chin-ups or push-ups, but at least I can sneeze without keeling over in pain.


CM, was my running partner for the Saturday run.  We were planning on doing 20 miles together, but she was having serious hip flexor issues, so by the 10mi marker I suggested it would probably better if she rests rather than forcing 24 miles.  Any running at this point has extremely marginal benefits.  Yet she kept on insisting she needed to run 24.

It's kinda funny, we train to build up a pretty good tolerance to physical pain, but nothing for the emotional side.  And running is all mental.  Did CM really need to run 24?  Hardly.  But for her mental edge, she thinks/thought she did.

My self doubt is this, do I set a goal for VIM?  I'm a bit confused.  Originally it was to get a sub-4, but that doesn't seem challenging anymore.  My tempo runs showed (note past tense) I was on a pace to run to a 3:36(!!) which would have been great.  But I'm no longer at that level of conditioning.  Do I even bother to set a goal... afterall, I mentioned in a previous blog that when you set a target and don't meet it, it hurts, not physically but emotionally.  Not sure if I want that pain.


CM and I talked it through.  I'm going to race a sliding schedule.  Go out comfortably and re-evaluate at each of the 5 mile marks and adjust accordingly.  So instead of setting a overall time target, I'm going to run the best that I can.  My real goal though is to have nothing left at the end.  And when it all boils down, if I'm completely drained, regardless of time, I'll be ecstatic.