You Know You're Ultramarathon Tapering When...

I am now 2 weeks into my 4 week taper until Sun Mountain on May 18.  I ran 20K today and it struck me as totally crazy that I now view 20K as an easy refreshing run, but it was!  I coached the first week of the ELM Off Road Half Marathon Clinic and then continued on my own for a bit to get some elevation into the run.  I finally ran Branch 21 without mishap - no cougar and no hyponatremia!  Three time's the charm.

It's kinda funny that people keep asking me..."it must feel great to be tapering now right?"  Actually, it's been really hard.  Mentally that is.  I'm surprised at how I feel.  I've been so focus on the training, then the climax of training.  Now that that's past and the race is still 2 weeks away I feel lost!  I feel like I don't have any focus.  It's surprisingly hard to stay on top of the mental game with such a long taper.  I'm trying to focus more on total health now - eating right, sleeping enough, drinking water, not getting sick.  I'm still running all my tempo and hill runs - keeping the intensity up, but decreasing the total mileage.  My legs still don't quite feel fresh, but they are recovering slowly from those back-to-back 40K long run weeks.

You Know You're Ultramarathon Tapering When

• you're constantly hungry but know you can't eat all those things you really really want


• you're having dreams that you show up to the race start in your underwear or without your running shoes


• you're cranky from not running - seriously cranky


• you're reading a lot of motivational quotes about ultramarathons and running on Pinterest


• your friends and basically anyone you talk to runs in the opposite direction when you mention the word "ultra"


• you keep flip-flopping between wishing the race was tomorrow and thinking it would be great to have a few more weeks of training


• you keep looking for more songs for your ultra song playlist and try not to listen to it too much before the race so you don't get sick of it


• you're convinced you've gained 10 pounds since you started tapering


• you feel sluggish and like you could run forever...all during the same run


• you've planned out three possible outfits for the race depending on weather conditions


• you have random bursts of energy when you want to reorganize your closets or kitchen pantry (I just did my desk drawers)

Here's to taper time!

One of those aforementioned Pinterest quotes I like