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Tapering








It's done. Finished. The end. Woohoo!

I woke up this morning at 4:45am to get ready to run the half marathon. Most of the night I slept great, but the last two hours were horrible -- I had one of those dreams where I missed my alarm, woke up at 5:25am, friends came at 5:30am, we didn't leave my house until 6:55am for the 7am race, got there late, everyone had already started, hurriedly checked my gear, and took off. I woke up shaking from the adrenaline coursing through me after that dream. Ugh. So thankful, that's not how it went. Everything went smoothly and great. Whew!




I have a love/hate relationship with taper week. I love it, because it means the race is near and I finally get a break. My life doesn't revolve around my workouts, keeping my kids preoccupied while I run, moving our schedules around. I was in the BEST mood this week. I've been needing the break.

I also hate tapering. Last night, I was filled with so much anxiety about this race -- namely how in the world would I do it or feel if the longest run I ran was two weeks ago! I mean, all I did was short runs, was I really ready? Of course I was! That's the point of tapering -- to give your body a chance to recover and make you stronger for race day. And it worked. I felt good. My Achilles and IT Band were tight, but didn't hurt at all during the race (that hasn't happened in months). My body and my brain needed the time off.

I need to learn to taper in life. There's this constant pressure to constantly be doing something and just go, go, going...until I am utterly exhausted. I need to take a week (or even just a weekend) every once in a while and just "be." A chance to mentally check out from life and just enjoy my family. As hard as it was to taper this past week, I LOVED getting the chance yesterday to finally have a Saturday morning where I just laid around in my pajamas watching cartoons and snuggling with my kids, instead of rushing out the door for a long run. I need more of those mornings. :)



I told myself to enjoy the run and I did. I enjoyed running with my neighbor and friend, Jen. My parents and best friend, Lauren, were along the course to cheer me on in the final miles and it was awesome to see them (as well as everyone else I ran into too). I'm glad it's over and I'm ready to get started on some different workouts. I enjoyed a nice hot shower when I got home and applied Ortho Sport massage oil all over my legs, along with Deep Relief and Aroma Siez on my tight hamstrings.




It was also great to get a bunch of post-race snuggles with my cuties. :)

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