Time to taper

Well, I have three weeks left until the marathon. I've been running hard and am a bit tired. I had my last 20 mile run this past weekend and it went pretty well. I ran the back half of the marathon route first and then a portion of the front half. The back half is pretty hilly, so I wanted to test it out to see how bad it might be. I did ok, but I hit the hills at about mile 5 instead of mile 17 like I will during the race. I'm sure those hills are going to kill me come race day.

I have not really been having any IT band issues, but did have a "new" pain form in my knee near the end of the 20-mile run. This time the pain is on the inside of my left knee below the knee cap and was pretty sharp. It hurt for a second or two, then went away. After about 19 miles, it hit again, caused me to slow, but again went quickly away. I ran a recovery run on Sunday and did not have any problems. We'll see how this week of running goes.

Anyway, as for the taper, I've been reading a lot about tapering and why its necessary. Most say tapering is needed because a runners body/muscles are being broken down during heavy training and the taper allows the body to heal. I read somewhere that it takes three weeks to fully recover from a 20-mile run... yikes... and I've done three in the last seven weeks.. I guess I need that tapering.

From what I've read, for the three weeks proceeding the race, the weekly mileage should be cut. The first week, the mileage should be cut by 25%, the second 50% and the third 70%. That's a lot less running. I need to keep the intensity and pace up, but just cut the mileage. I've been running a lot of miles around race pace, so I figure, its time to cut that back a little and try and run a bit slower. The last thing I want is to get hurt during the tapering phase.

I've also heard that my body will begin to ache a bit more during this period. As the body repairs itself, it will hurt. They say don't freak out at each new pain... do they know who they are talking to???

Well, I get to run an easy 5-mile run today. I'm looking forward to getting out there and testing out that left knee. Hopefully everything will go well, and I can enjoy this tapering.