Taper Time, Berlin edition

While I've technically been on my marathon taper schedule for more than a week and a half already, it wasn't really fair to say I was tapering.  The way the taper schedule was written, it had a full week leading up to the long, long, long run, plus a fairly tough week after the long, long, long run.  So while it was written on a page called "taper schedule," it wasn't really tapering yet.  And my legs knew it.  Right now I'm tired, my legs are heavy, and I'm feeling generally stiff and achy.

But after this morning's run, it's official -- I am tapering!  In the truest sense of the term!  Cutting quantity, keeping quality.  Today I had some tough mile repeats at 15k pace with very short recovery (but fortunately it was jogging recovery, which is about a billion times better than having to completely stop between repeats, but it was still short recovery).  And next I have a very easy jog to work. 

Next week, I will still do my running commute to work all three days, but I'll have hubby pick me up afterward (so cutting "junk" miles by 40%).  And my weekday group runs will be short, short, short (but parts will be fast, fast, fast).  The following week, I won't do any commuting runs (and actually, my scheduled runs will be a mess because of we fly over to Berlin on Wednesday, not landing until Thursday, creating some question as to if/when I will do my Thursday miles that week). 

I'll be taking it pretty easy at boot camp until we leave, not picking up any extra miles there.  If the group goes to run, I'll stay at my mat and do abs or something.  And I'll probably even half-@ss that!  And if we have to do lunges, I'll invoke the "knee model" excuse -- there is no way my knee will be kissing pavement on more than about 10 lunges per day. 

When I pack my clothes to bring to work next week, my goal is going to be to wear flats every day.  I don't wear HIGH heels to work, but I usually wear shoes with a pretty low heel.  No more (I hope). 

This past week marked the addition of vitamin C to my daily routine, and I think I'll probably keep taking it until November, maybe even longer, just due to travel and other races (running the San Antonio marathon in November with friends for fun). 

And I'm going to continue my dietary efforts that I tried to roughly implement one month pre-race for the remainder of the taper -- no alcohol (except for our pre-race dinner party tomorrow night, and maybe one beer after the Oktoberfest 5k next weekend), no desserts or sweets (I'll still eat fruit, but I mean avoiding candy and cookies, etc., except for our pre-race dinner party tomorrow night (likely dessert is black forest cake)), and protein with every dinner (except Saturday nights, sticking with my tried and true pre-long-run pasta and garlic bread routine). 

Here we go...