Taper Enforcement

One of the biggest challenges faced by endurance athletes comes during the last few weeks prior to their big events. Many outside the sport believe the toughest time during training must certainly be those weeks with the longest scheduled sessions. While those weeks are challenging, taper is certainly one of the demons all endurance athletes face.

This is why I must seriously thank my employer, this week. Due to the upcoming launch of the next phase of our new business system, I've been maintaining my normal daily routine without having to worry about overtraining. Instead of getting up at 4:30 in the morning for a swim, bike, or run, I've been up at that time in order to be at work by 5:30. There is little risk of an overtraining injury from sitting at a computer.

While this has cut into the limited training I would have done, there has been no opportunity for me to get overzealous (because let's face it, we're all prone to going farther and harder than we should). And history has shown me that a marathon is still doable after nearly two weeks of no running (something about injuring a hamstring while overtraining during taper, who knew).

To top it all off, the Go Live for our system, scheduled for this weekend, has been pushed back by a week. This is fortunate, as working this weekend was going to interfere with going to B-Boy's race, and force me to show up in the afternoon on Sunday, after running a marathon. While I'll still have to work the weekend, I'll be able to make it just afternoons, and there will be considerably less pressure. Hooray for work!

Three days to go.