Move out to a safe distance

Oh, what a marvelous time it is! As I look forward to picking up my race kit after work this evening, I sit here firmly in the grip of both taper crazies AND pre-race nerves, with just the faintest sniffle from the inevitable pre-race cold. 

I'm popping echinacea, slurping water and munching my way through a tub of kimchi (for digestive health. Also: omnomnom) plus a truly staggering quantity of rice. 

I have wound training down like a good girl. I ended up taking both last Friday and Saturday completely off (except for a couple of walks and building a barbecue), finally allowing that idiot niggle in my left knee enough rest to really heal. I've been foam rolling my calf - which I'm sure is the source of the niggle - every single day this week, and it feels perfectly fine. I even took this Wednesday off, chose to sleep instead of going to the pool last night, and have been resisting the urge to take my bike out and enjoy the suddenly warm, sunny spell we've been experiencing.

No bike riding in summery weather makes K something something..

Mileage has dropped astonishingly, but to keep some zip in my legs I ran the trail to the local highschool and laid down 3 x 800 on their track. Having calculated my goal race pace for the 800s, I proceeded to run each one of them 10-12 seconds faster than I should have, despite my lack of heat acclimation. 

Pacing awareness: I haz none.

Today is another rest day - all I have left is an easy 20min run tomorrow with a couple of strides to keep things loose, then trying to sit on my butt and keep my feet up as much as possible - ought to be amusing, as I'm really bad at sitting still at the best of times. This is probably the hardest I've ever tapered for an event, but it's also probably the loftiest goal I've set for myself - definitely a big source of the pre-race nerves!

But really, I should be able to trust the training. I've worked hard for this and built a lot of fitness since December the 12th (the day I actually registered, according to the confirmation page I dug out this morning), so I think the stretch goal might be achievable. Even if I don't quite make it, what's the worst that can happen?

If you'd like to follow my path to death or glory (or possibly something in between), SportStats will be posting live race alerts via Facebook on Sunday - my bib number is 3048. Crap, no hiding now!

Of course, this all assumes that my pre-race insanity doesn't drive Tanker to nuke me from orbit. After all, it's the only way to be sure.