The Hell of Tapering

Last Update Before The Marathon

To not lose the thread completely, here’s another update on my concluding marathon preparation. Probably the last one.

Tapering has been a wild ride. The main issue was the fatigue I accumulated during the last few big weeks. You don’t really recognize this while you have the metal to the pedal full throttle. But once the work is done, the body gives you clear signals that your capacities are maxed out. Or beyond that. In my case the signals were heavily worn out thigh muscles that just would not recover, no matter how much I rested and pampered them. Fortunately, the story ended well. About half way through my tapering, so just perfectly in time, my thigh muscles went back to normal and now feel absolutely amazing while running.

However there was another tiny nag that I didn’t pay much attention to. Mostly because it was covered under muscle damage. It was and is a hip flexor irritation, that I’ve been carrying around with me for a couple of days now. Once the muscle pain in my thighs disappeared, it became obvious that this is a full grown problem. Since last Saturday I’ve been limping during my runs. Not good. Although the pain itself is only a 2/10 on the pain scale (remember, 10 stands for "burning alive"), the protective posture that my body automatically picks up, causes all sorts of unwanted side effects. You all know the deal.

After a couple of days resting the leg, gently stretching and testing running with different efforts, I can now confirm that today (Thursday) I am clearly not able to run a marathon. Good news is: The Marathon is on Sunday, haha!

You might tell from the tone of this writing that this situation doesn’t dampen my spirits. First of all, I still have hope. Second, I don’t regard Sunday’s marathon as a once in a lifetime chance. I used to feel like this at the end of previous marathon preparations. This time it’s different, though. If it’s not Kandel, I’ll just run another marathon later on this year. This is how I feel and I am glad to be so relaxed.

Disclaimer: I am not making beforehand excuses here. If I show up at the start line this Sunday, I’ll race the hell out of this marathon, that’s for sure. Things are never perfect, but I won’t let one bad decision derail my running for weeks, if not months. No race is worth that.

Either way, the thrill is real.