Taper Week

Tapering for an event is glorious. It's the physical, visceral reward for months of hard work, an actual feeling of health and well-being beyond the normal human experience created by the body's natural recovery process following a prolonged period of physical effort. 

It's also maddening. 

It's maddening because it's a break in the routine, a cut down on the workouts that are the normal Stress Release Valve for most athletes, and because with all that time on your hands and your key race looking you right in the face, you really are stuck just sitting there worrying about it. 

Am I really ready for this?  Did I do enough?  There's a nine-mile climb right in the middle of the bike leg; can I get one more workout to really prove to myself that I can handle it?

But you can't, of course. As my old college swim coach used to say, "The hay is in the barn."  For better or worse, training is done, and now you have to live or die based on your past dedication. 

Argh. 

Normally I'd deal with these feelings by riding, by working it out emotionally while I work my body physically. This particular week, however, I'm stuck. I'm tapering. 

Thank God the race is Saturday. Otherwise, I think I'd go mad.