Taper plans

Now that I finished the 22 mile long run, I'm moving into taper mode.

I've posted before about general taper plans and things I try to do. 

Cutting quantity, keeping quality when it comes to running.  So instead of doing 2 miles warm-up, 4 miles pace, 2 miles cool-down for a typical weekday run, it will now look more like 1 mile warm-up, 4 miles pace, 1 mile cool-down. 

I usually try to wear flats every day when tapering. I don't ever really wear HIGH heels to work, but I usually wear shoes with a pretty low heel, but for the next couple weeks, I'm going to aim for flats. 

I've added vitamin C back into my daily vitamins.  I'll probably keep taking it through the end of the year since after the race, I'll have a weak immune system anyway (which hopefully won't mean I die in India), we'll be traveling, it's the time of the year I usually get sick, and I'll do one more marathon before the end of the year (for fun).

I'm going to attempt to lock-down the diet.  Protein at every dinner (except the night before a long run, even though there aren't any more real long ones).  No candy or sweets (other than fruit and maybe honey on my yogurt).  No alcohol (easy peasy since I've sworn off it given last weekend's fun).  The big exception to all of this will be next weekend when my folks come to visit.  We'll be eating out a lot, and we will head to the state fair, which means one thing for me -- fried butter.  Man, I love that stuff!!!  About 4-5 days before the race, I'll probably make an attempt to minimize fiber. 

Extra yoga.  Since my 30 day challenge in April, I've been attempting Bikram moderation, trying to get to class 3-5 times per week.  I'm going to attempt to keep it on the higher end of that scale for a couple weeks.

Less blog and facebook.  Less reading, less writing.  I should devote a bit of extra time to sleep.  It will pay off in the end. 

Gentle boot camps.  More half-@ssing it, easy running, not going all the way down on lunges, etc.  I won't say I don't ever slack when I'm not tapering, but I try to make a point of slacking when tapering. 

Envisioning success.  I'm not great at this, but it's important to do.  During my runs, regardless of pace, thinking about how strong I am.  Imagining holding goal race pace, imagining the hurt but the drive to keep pushing, seeing myself cross the line with my goal time (though this is actually kind of stupid because I've never started a marathon right at the gun).  Picturing the actual splits popping up on my watch, etc. 

Race prep -- setting out what is going with me, reviewing the course in detail, reading about the expo location, the starting line logistics, etc.