Starting my 50 miler taper.

With a little more than 2 weeks until the big day, I hit the trails for 20 miles today. Frankly, after so many long runs and being so tired after these runs, today's 20 miler felt like that I was cheating myself. I finished easily in less than 3:30 hours.

Mentally, I really wanted to squeeze in another longer run. I felt some how that I needed it but my common sense kept telling me to stick with my plan. Trust the plan to get me to the starting line healthy, rested, and ready to run. As much as I thought about it, my common sense won out today.

As runners, we far too often get caught up in the training so much so that we attempt to squeeze in just one more effort in hopes that it brings us the success that we seek. Yes, we all have stories where we did succeed, but we probably have just as many or more stories where we were tired, flat, and not really ready to go on race day. I have been here far more often than I have been raring to go on race day.

Here's hoping today's decision pays off with dividends in 2 weeks.

Stay tuned.

The Cool Down Runner