The Impending Taper and a Sneak Peek at 2014

"All this time I was finding myself, and I didn't know I was lost."

-Wake Me Up, Avicii

My kind of running weather

I pretended I was a triathlete this morning and swam a kilometer after my 4-mile run.  The run went GREAT.  I nailed my M-pace with minimal effort and felt like a champ.  (NYC's average high in November is 50-something and Orlando's is 79, so I may just hit that sub-5 goal. My body luuurrrrves some cool weather.) 

Now, to get my ass back on a bike . . .

I think I have the opposite of Taper Madness.  Taper Madness is when you start to lose your ever-loving mind during taper because you're so used to dedicating all your spare hours to training. You start to question yourself, your abilities, your training, your diet . . . or maybe you itch like Dave Chapelle's crackhead character Tyrone Biggums.  Lemme tell you something you don't know about me, Joe Rogan . . . I smoke rocks.

(Don't tell me I'm the only one who feels like that during a taper?!?!)

I have the opposite of that.  I am DYING for the taper to begin.  I think because the MAJathon was such an awaited effort and running 42 miles in one week was such a milestone for me that I almost feel like I should just go right into the off-season. 

No such luck, chief. 

While my hardest week is over, I have several hard ones left.  Several more weeks of 30-40 miles of running, a half marathon, 800 repeats. My actual "taper" is that I don't do weights starting next week (this week I still do them), and I drop down to 20 miles of run 2 weeks before the race, then run 35+ miles the week OF the race.

Seriously, though, I feel super. Amazeballs even.

So I got to thinking about 2014.   The results came in this week, and I was not sponsored by Betty Designs for '14.  Of course, I was initially disappointed that I'm not a Betty this year, but I am not one to dwell on disappointments for more than a short period. I like to find the silver lining in a hurry.

Besides, I have lots of things up my sleeve.  Among them:

-I may be speaking at the team DermiNation dinner again this year

-I could try to qualify for Nats again and this time save the money to go

-I could go 70.3 and finally slay my demons at Florida Half Ironman

-I could make it another double-marathon year to start hunting down my dream of doing 50 states

 

After surviving this year, there's no telling what's up next.  Stay Tuned.