It is two-weeks-taper time.  That’s marathon lingo! Yes, EndorphinGirl™ is becoming informed about the marathon vernacular.  Well maybe she made the construct of the first sentence up, but basically marathoners preparing for run day, generally taper their running two weeks prior to the marathon in order to rest their body, mind and yeah soul. This makes a lot of sense, but the problem EndorphinGirl™ has is that she has finally gotten her groove run (i.e., long distance run) in and now she has to taper.  She did a 7-mile run this past week; on the treadmill no less!  On that same morning of the 7-mile run day, she and Jack Steel did a 'hill run'; while it was only about a mile, it was a 'hill mile' which in EndorphinGirl™'s opinion counts for at least 2 miles.    

She has now completed half of a half marathon.  If truth be known, and it's going to be known - she is simply delighted with that distance accomplishment.  And it could be enough, but wait, wait it is also a motivator too.  And she is already envisioning herself completing the second half of the half, gracefully sailing past the finish line.  Okay, must snap out of the 'vision' moment and get back to the blog!

While she is trying to taper, she has one more long run scheduled for this weekend.  She’s going for the 8-mile run. She will run on only one of the weekend days, and then she will taper the rest of the weekend and pre-marathon week.  Really!  Her completed-17-marathons-in-different-states brother told her it’s imperative to rest on the Friday and Saturday prior to the marathon.  Like really rest, with feet up, good sleep, more epsom salt baths etc. etc.  She’s good with that!  This way the stems (aka legs) will be rested and eager to plow through the 13.1 miles!  This of course is in addition to the tapering.  Marathon brother also mentioned no more than one or two short runs should happen during the week leading up to marathon day!  He further confirmed the tapering necessity.  It all sounds good!

The trio of Adreena Lin, Vita Min and Sera Tonin are still in town.  They’ve been encouraging throughout both the training and the tapering weeks.  The trio still plans to be in spectator
attendance on marathon day.  But the best encouragement is EndorphinDaughter who will be home from college this weekend.  In addition to running the half marathon together, she and EndorphinGirl™ will run the last pre-marathon long run (i.e., 8-mile-run) together at the track by the river!  Then the real tapering begins.  Stay tuned.

The physical tapering is underway.  The mind and soul part doesn’t require tapering, rather a more TLC-approach is preferred.  EndorphinGirl™ is keeping both mind and soul nourished through yoga.  There is an escalation of yoga activity for EndorphinGirl™ during the tapering weeks.  This will do much fabgood for both mind and soul. 



[EndorphinGirl just made up that word – fabgood.  It's definition you ask?  

def. is a real-feel-feel-real glorious-fabulous good due to yoga nourishment and take-tapering-action in pre-marathon tapering days]

In the fabgood spirit, this week’s EndorphinGirl™ image has her in Namaste Pose.  The snap is courtesy of EndorphinGirl™’s son.

Until next time, comments most welcome in guestbook, and keep on endorphin’.

EndorphinGirl™

[countdown: 11 days]