Don't like the taper

In a lot of endurance training, there is the concept of the "taper". After months of hard work prior to a race, you ease off on your training to give your body time to absorb your training and "get ready" for the race.

I've got a half marathon on Sunday (the Great Bay Half Marathon) which means I should be in full-on taper mode. But I don't like the taper.

I don't know if this is because I started endurance training so late in life (being inactive for the first 40 years will do that to a girl)...which makes me very reluctant to lose any of this extremely hard won fitness or if it is because I have yet to truly experience the benefit of a taper.

Because I am so new to endurance sports, my training is much like my racing. I'm just trying to get through the workout/race. I don't go faster during a race because of the adrenaline of all of the other participants, I'm going as fast as I possibly can already - there is no faster.

Going into this race, many people have chided me and told me to taper - so I have cut back...but my "cut back" is still fairly serious. As I told a friend, "I'm only doing one sport a day and not swimming at all." Which looking at that now sounds like I'm trying to rationalize the no-taper taper.

So - one more bike ride (tomorrow), one more easy run on Friday and then nothing (gasp) until the race. We'll see how *that* goes.

There are five types of walks for the dog

Buttercup came to our house as a puppy on Valentine's Day almost four years ago. She is a yellow lab, very kind, tolerant of the kids, always excited to see everyone, loves to lick and is obsessed with tennis balls. She is so obsessed with playing fetch that we can't have tennis balls in the house - or she will stand over the ball, staring at it willing it (or us) to throw the ball so she can retrieve it.

As I took her out for a walk yesterday, I realized that there are five types of walks for the dog (in increasing order of preference):

1. The go down to the end of the block and back because it's so dag cold but I really need to get out of the house walk.
2. The go the usual route walk (about 1 mile total) with no accoutrement - just sniffing anything that smells good - and rolling in anything that smells REALLY good.
3. The ramble around the neighborhood with the kids walk. This is a slow poke down the road with lots of exploring in the river, stomping on the snow, kicking leaves, and general wiggling around.
4. Pure chucky - The tennis ball gets put in the ball chucker and gets thrown as many times as a human will continue to chuck. This works better in the spring, summer and fall as the tennis ball tends to get lost in snow.
5. Chucky plus walk - the usual route with the addition of a complete chucky session. Smelling, fetching, chasing, retrieving, drooling, panting...it's all good.

As I was watching the dog yesterday (during the penultimate "chucky plus walk"), I realized that her tail NEVER stopped wagging. She was so excited to be outside moving down the road chasing her tennis ball. It is such a simple thing - but brings her such joy. Makes me think I need to find the chucky plus walk activity for me.

1.