I have a new commitment for my efforts to lose weight. Rather than grab munchies when I am feeling stressed out, I am going to try to go play a round of Wii tennis. I have a bag of oranges on hand for when that is not possible, but so far I have managed to play tennis with reasonable success when I am getting stressed out. We’ll see how it is working when I find where my bathroom scale vanished to back around Thanksgiving.

Life sometimes has a way of conspiring with our wishes and desires to make things happen. Such was my day yesterday. I needed to (well maybe not *needed*, but definitely *should have*) hit the trails for a 6 mile run. But, one thing led to another led to another, and before I knew it, it was late in the day. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned here before, but one of the things I do to keep the peace in the Jones household is cook dinner on the weekends. (It’s not really that bad.

I adopted a pet today. His name is Marathon:

He will be my constant companion for the next three weeks. Some of his endearing qualities:

• Tapirs near a water source will swim, sink to the bottom to allow small fish to pick parasites off their bulky bodies.
• Along with fresh water lounging, tapirs often wallow in mud pits.
• The thick skin on the backs of their necks helps to protect them from threats.
• When threatened, the creatures are able to run fairly quickly, considering their size and cumbersome appearance, and find shelter in the thick undergrowth of the forest or in water.

I think Marathon and I will get along quite well….

Twelve nice and easy miles in the books. My last double digit training run before the Big Day. I took the opportunity to check out a couple things from my list:

• Clothing: Apparently my body is still changing. My favorite marathon shorts (Adidas with built in compression shorts) fits a lot looser that I remember. I had a problem with the shorts riding down on my hips and the compression shorts riding up into my nether regions. I fixed it by cinching the drawstrings a little tighter. Ouch! I need to remember that on race day….
• Fueling on the run: I was able to rip the little top off the Hammer Gels and get them down while moving.

Let’s see. Where do I start. First off, something that Adam (I Am Boring) left in a blog comment yesterday about taper time makes a lot of sense:

“…most people will say to keep the same intensity (speed) as before just reduce the volume. I like that a lot - keep you legs moving at the same speeds that they are used to.”

That makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways. I mean it takes doing something for 20 days to make it habit, right? Can you forget a habit by *not* doing it for 20 days? 21 day taper?

Less than 20 days until The Day. March 21st. That means the bane of most marathoners has begun - taper. Most of us hear about “taper madness” - that time where we are told by our training plans to run less to prepare for running more. It seems counter intuitive. It’s tough to cut a run short at 6 miles when you used to run 10. Most of you have been there before. And even though this is my third time, I’ve got to admit this whole taper thing is still a bit of a mystery.

I spent some time yesterday researching the value of the taper.

I got out for my planned six miler late in the afternoon yesterday. I was pretty sneaky. The wind was blowing onshore (happens a lot in the afternoon as the rising air over the land draws the cooler air off the ocean). In my earlier days I would have put the miles in. Screw the wind. But demonstrating my higher intelligence (well, okay, the fact that it took me about a year and a half to catch on), I headed up the road so that I would be running the first three miles into the wind, which of course meant that the way back to the car would be with a tailwind.

It’s hard to believe that we are already in the first week of March! Wow! That means it’s time to put the wrap on February and look forward to this month.

Bottom line is February went out like a lamb. Part of it was a little too much racing - three races this past month - Surf City Half on the 7th, WTRS 21K Trail race on the 20th, and the Firecracker 10K this past Sunday. With all the mini-tapering that went on, that definitely put the kibosh on serious mileage:

• Week ending 2/7: 28 running, 9 rowing - 37 total
• Week ending 2/14: 41 running, 10 rowing - 51 total
• Week ending 2/21: 29 running, 9 rowing - 38 total
• Week ending 2/28: 23 running, 5 rowing - 28 total
• Total: 121 running, 33 rowing - 154 total

That’s about 25 to 30 miles short of plan when I started the month.

I’m back from another race! You know what that means! Another (not so) short video:

Yesterday’s race was the Firecracker 10K. Last year I gave this race a pretty negative review. All I’ve got to say is what a difference a year makes! The race organizers listened to criticism and made this a truly memorable event.

Sunday morning broke cool but clear. It was shaping up to be one of those spectacular days in Southern California.

Traffic is always a crap shoot in L.A., so I left with plenty of time to spare.

So this week really went right down the tubes. Into the tank. Up in smoke. You get the drift. Friday’s 10 kilometer row succumbed to some business matters, and today’s 10 mile pace run succumbed to bad weather. This leaves me a 10K race tomorrow morning, and if I pull of a couple mile warm up/warm down, I *might* be talking 30 miles this week. How about a 4 week taper?

I did join a trail running club today - the Southern California Trail Headz. I got dressed in all my wet weather clothing glory and made my way to the New Member meeting this morning.