Taper Crazies and One Week To Go!!

When I was a swimmer at UNH, I had the privilege of being trained by a coach who knew how to do a taper. For two years, I peaked and then tapered two weeks for the AmericaEast championships and for two years, I nailed my times, PR-ing in every event each year. Those taper weeks though, were misery. Nothing felt right both in the pool or out. I was over energized and grumpy. Lord help everyone around me - luckily I lived in a single the first year and had a former swimmer as a roomie the second year.

Rowing never had the same sort of taper events - mostly because we were often preparing for races all season, not focusing on one particular event or maybe because those tapers were not done as well as my UNH swim coach's workouts. I'll never know.

What I do know is that I've had the taper crazies for the last week or so. Running has felt awful at times, I'm grumpy, and I've even been planning the next training cycle. All true signs that I think I did something right this time in spite of this winter's extra long cycle of ice, snow, and bitter cold. We'll see if that's really true on Monday!

Yup, Monday, one week from tomorrow. We are already getting weather reports from Matt Noyes of NECN and it's looking like shorts and singlet weather in the high 50's and partly cloudy....have I even worn shorts yet this year? Will test the singlet tomorrow when it's 77 and make sure any important parts are not going to get worn away after 26.2 miles.

I'm also hitting the big time fund raising $9243.20 by the official total, but about $650 in checks are headed their way, which means I'm very likely to break into the $10,000 realm on or before Marathon Day and it would be really great to hit the half-marathon mark $13,100 by then. Donations don't have to be large. Every little bit helps. Every little bit gives a little kick in cancer's butt and lets it know that we are coming after it, just like I'll be coming after that Boston Marathon finish line. Slow, but strong, and never ever stopping.

Thanks so much to my amazing 80+ supporters already. Let's get it to 100 by Marathon Day and onward to $15,000! Thank you again and again!