Entering the taper section of a training plan is both great and horrible. On the one hand, the hard work is done, and the load starts to reduce as you bear down on your race. On the other hand, you start to worry about whether you’ve done enough during the training block, while trying not to do anything additional that will impair your fitness before race day. The saying goes that you can’t do anything at this stage to improve your chances in the race, but you can do an awful lot to harm them.
Depending on your fitness level, the taper should always include some intensity. You need to keep that sharpness there, keep the muscle memory in the legs of what you’re expecting them to do on race day. However, the level of intensity should obviously be reduced from where it was pre-taper. I did a fairly comfortable progressive session 13 days out from the Broadway marathon, and then started to notice a bit of knee pain later that evening. this was a load-bearing pain, where it would mainly hurt going up and down the stairs. Great for an upcoming hilly race!
There is also such a thing as maranoia during the taper. Knowing what’s coming, and how on top of your game you want to be, you notice every little twinge and niggle. You just need to ignore it and trust in the taper, and the training plan that preceded it. This was different though. I went out for a couple of easy runs in the days after and, although pain was minimal during those runs, I was in quite some discomfort afterwards. Taking on board the words above, I decided to rest. There was nothing I could do now for fitness, but I could certainly make my knee worse and risk not making it to the start line. Friday’s 4 x 4 minutes definitely felt like a bad idea.
The good thing is that having a dog forces you to remain active anyway. So I have still been walking for at least an hour a day, but then I have been icing my knee afterwards and using Ibuprofen gel both morning and night to try and reduce any inflammation and increase the chances of recovery.
Following five days away from running, and now with just five days left until race day, I decided to go out for a little run to see how the knee held up. There was no point in resting completely, then setting off on Sunday and realising in the first couple of miles that the pain was too great and that I’d have to DNF (did not finish). I need to find that out now. If it’s too bad, then I’d rather DNS (did not start) than DNF, and risk a month on the sidelines due to ruining my knee so badly.
So, I did a 3.5 mile run, followed by a 4 mile run two days later. My knee was a little sore during the first half a mile, on both occasions, but it freed up afterwards. Going up and downhill posed no issues. OK, these were not representative of the hills that I’ll be facing on Saturday, but positive news nonetheless. Later on, particularly in the evenings, there was some pain, and some throbbing, but it did seem to be better than it had been. In fact, it felt better on the days that I had run than on the days which I hadn’t.
Decision time then. Should I step away from the race and preserve myself for the next training block? Or do I go for it, cap off a great training block, and hope that my knee holds out?
Anyone that knows me, already knows the answer. Lets give it full send and see what happens…