Feel the Burn

Sometimes taper sucks, at least in my limited experience. Sometimes your legs feel heavy, even achey from those miles of intense training piled on in the last weeks of peak. You want to eat everything and snap at everyone who looks at you sideways. The tiniest things set you off like a stick of dynamite.

But sometimes, sometimes taper rocks. When you hop on the trainer for a quick set of intervals, revving that engine until it wants to explode then head out for a mile or so to let those legs run - and you feel the power, in your legs, your lungs, your mind - you feel like an animal that's been let out of its cage. Or like one of those toy cars you had as a kid - the kind that, when you pushed it backwards over and over on the linoleum, you would wind it and it made that tiny revving sound until you finally set it down and it took off like it was shot out of a cannon, ramming its tiny hood into the kitchen wall. That little car was meant to go fast - and so were you.

That's when taper rocks. This morning, taper rocked. This morning, I feel ready.