This is where my brain goes when someone asks me about the taper…

The taper is well and truly upon us. This time next week, if all goes well, all three of us will have finished the Abingdon Marathon and will be ensconced in an Oxford pub somewhere, sharing tales of the event and supping pints of ale. These are the customs that must be observed after these occasions. And before we hit the track, the last piece of the training puzzle is to wind down the efforts, and this is known as tapering.

The generally-accepted rules, such as there are any, would suggest you cut volume but not necessarily intensity. Start about three weeks out, and reduce each week. By the last week, you should be down to about half of your mileage. Mind you, half of what mileage exactly, given that each month of training is specific, and ramps up from weeks one to three, and then drops back on week four, only to go again the following month, with increased volumes.

But hey-ho. You get the gist. Or, you could do what I did, and really throw the book out the window. Week Three (the first week of tapering) saw us on holidays, and I did very little running, other than climb a mountain (which is a good workout, but it’s not running). And then Gary and I did a rather odd combo of speed work and long distance running last weekend, and in the final weekend before the big day, JC arrived over and we all did a parkrun yesterday.

The parkrun was a nice marker for several reasons. Niamh, Gary and JC were on hand to witness me reaching my 50 parkrun milestone, which was nice. I mean, in comparison to these veterans, a poor return 🙂

It was also the first time back for the Castletown parkrun in Celbridge which had been cancelled for several years due to issues with access and parking. With those problems now resolved, it was great to have it back again. I was at the inaugural parkrun here back in October of 2015, so it was important to be here once more for the new season. And indeed, over 420 runners thought the same. Many thanks to the race director and volunteers for their great work.

And JC managed a new PB of 20:58, so that was a nice bonus. He finished ahead of me in 13th place, and I came in in 14th in 21:15, and the first in my age bracket. All of which sets us up nicely for the rematch next week 😉

I may slip out for a run later today, but we’ll see. Sunday has a habit of getting away from me…