Today was the day. Almost every time that I am backing down my training for a big race, I have a taper run, where I feel terrible.  All I did was a short, easy pace 30 minute run with a few strides.  Why did it feel so bad?

It felt really bad.  As I ran on very sluggish and tired feeling legs, I thought to myself… “If I feel this bad after two miles today, how am I going to run 50 miles on Saturday?”. 

To be fair, the longer I ran the better I felt and the strides at the end, were not too bad either.  It was not a great run though.  Years ago, I would be freaking out right now.  This has now happened to me so often however, that I almost expect it.  Every other time I have had a poor taper run, it has not resulted in the same feeling on race day. It is just one of those things.

I am pretty sure the feeling I am experiencing, is just my body adapting.  My muscles are rebuilding and gaining strength. I am fueling heavily ahead of the race. I am drinking a lot of fluids too.  These are subtle changes from my routine, and I need to adapt.

I have a rest day tomorrow and then another short run on Friday.  I am pretty confident that my run on Friday will feel a lot better than my run today.  That is what I expect from experience, and experience is a wonderful thing.