Everyone loves taper week, right? Well, everyone except me. Let me explain. I really like having the extra time, relaxing and mentally preparing for the race.

I HATE the heavy feeling my legs get. I hate the conflicting antsy feeling I also get. Because of the heavy feeling I don’t feel like walking at all. Even doing a casual walk to the library and back is hard because my legs feel like bags of cement.

Because of the antsy feeling, I can’t really sit still for long. In a short amount of time I need to jump up and at least walk around the room or run the stairs in our house to release the tension.

Though I usually eat pretty healthy foods, I don’t like having to really think about what I’m eating for a couple days before the event. For a long distance event like a half marathon I have to think about how all foods will affect me in the middle of the event. This is not the time to be eating Mexican or Indian foods, or even a lot of salads. I also avoid foods I’ve never eaten before. A lot of people don’t start that far before an event, but I’m a little cautious here — just in case.

So, the heavy and antsy feelings are normal and just let me know I’ve trained properly. Watching what I eat is not the end of the world. Regardless of how uncomfortable these things make me for a couple of days, it is all worth it. Once I am at the starting line, after all of the preparation, I’ll be thrilled I’m ready.

My legs are now antsy and I need to walk around before I head to bed. Yeah, I’m ready!

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