In the middle of your taper? Check out my most recent article for Women's Running Magazine and help your friend and family handle your taper with a bit of humor! Check it out HERE. With just a handful of days left until the Boston Marathon, I'm in the final days of this training cycle and officially "tapering." On Friday I felt ready, like I could have run the marathon the next day. Today I'm nursing the beginnings of a cold: feeling run down and a sore throat coming on. Not surprising since last week Liam was sick with a runny nose and cough. And while I was extra vigilant with washing my hands, I'm pretty sure that time I went to kiss his little cheek and he turned at the last minute leaving me with a mouthful of snot from his runny nose, was when he passed whatever he was fighting on to me.

Normally I'd take some cold and flu meds, push through the feeling of wanting to rest and just get life done. But this week I'm going to rest (aka drink tea and watch Fixer Upper), try to nap when the kids nap and head to bed early. I'd really like to kick whatever this thing is before Friday.

While I'm doing my best to taper and get better here's a look back on the past few weeks of my training:

Monday: two days after Eastern States my legs were feeling pretty good. 3 mi on the treadmill followed by Cross training: 2x20 step ups, reverse fly, sumo thrusters with kettle bell, row with kettle bell, bic/tri

Tuesday: 10 miles slow and easy. Legs felt stiff and tired.

Wednesday: 5 miles easy still felt stiff. Track in the evening. Was supposed to run 10x800 but my coach ended up bumping it down to 8x800 (in 3:10) with a 200 jog recovery on five min cycles. It was a tough workout and I felt like the pace was easy, but my stride just wasn't smooth. Splits: 3:11, 3:09, 3:10, 3:10, 3:12, 3:13, 3:09, 3:13.

Thursday: 4.5 easy still felt stiff and stride was not smooth

Friday: 30 easy minutes on the treadmill followed up with a 20 min of Yoga

Saturday: 7.5 mi. Five mile tempo. Goal was a more relaxed tempo around 7:20. My strides felt much more smooth and the paces felt relaxed. Splits 7:16, 7:18, 7:19, 7:17, 7:13

Sunday: On the schedule was another 20 miler. But after talking with my coach he thought that dropping it to 16 was a better idea since I did well at Eastern States and given how I'd been feeling that week. 16.25 easy miles.

Monday: planed rest day, good since it SNOWED. Gah!

Tuesday: 8 easy miles. Felt really good, other than the fact that the real feel was 5 degrees and I wasn't dressed properly. Felt really cold.

Wednesday: 5.5 miles in the morning had that easy feeling that comes with stepping back in mileage. Track in the evening was 12x200m with 200m jog, which is one of my favorite workouts. I felt smooth and light and really strong. Splits: ranged from 39-44 with most right at 42.

Thursday: 40 minutes running

Friday: 30 minutes easy running

Saturday: 12 miles total for the day. Morning run was 8.9 miles with a 10K tempo. Goal for the tempo was relaxed paces right around 7:20. This was the first tempo I had done in the morning (5:30am) and it was considerably colder than all my other tempos so I expected my times to be slightly slower and they were. Splits: 7:28, 7:18, 7:19, 7:21, 7:27, 7: 34.

Todd's Trot 5K-ran/walked the 5K as a family a fun tradition to be part of a great local race.

Pretty sure she's got the best run-style ever.

Sunday: 10 miles easy. Another colder than usual (real feel of 13 degrees in April isn't so fun) run so it just wasn't fun to be out there. Felt OK out on the run, but once I got home had that tell-tale head cold feeling and knew something not-so-good was brewing.

This week is taper week and here is the plan (although I may alter it depending on how I feel):

Monday: off

Tuesday: 30 easy

Wednesday 5K at marathon goal pace with a mile warm up and cool down

Friday: off

Saturday: 30 easy

Sunday: 30 easy

Monday: Boston Marathon!

What are your go-to cold remedies? How do you handle the taper? Do you get taper tantrums?

--Sarah

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Training Update: the final push

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