The Hay is in the Barn

Alright faithful non-audience, the hay is in the barn. From this point on out, I will not tax my body in any new way. I will not perform any harder workout. I won't increase distance. I will do no full-intensity workouts. That's not to say that I can take the next 19 days off. (19 days, that's it!) Just that for the remaining 3 weeks, the goal is to repair and maintain.

Repair

Starting with the massage I endured (yes, endured, details to follow) yesterday, my legs, joints, connective tissues and psyche will have 19 days to repair and refresh themselves before I put them to the test on Oct 27th. I have been continuously introducing my body to new stressors for the last 21 weeks (or 4 years, one might say) in the hopes that my body would adapt to each new stress and be able to handle the progressively tougher load. There have been 'micro'-cycles of tearing down and repairing stronger at least 2 times per week, every week (the so-called "quality" workouts of the week's training). In each of these cycles, I broke down my muscles and subsequently slept and fed and stayed off my legs giving my body time to repair all of the damage and make them stronger. All of these cycles add up to the 'macro'-cycle that is my 24-week training plan. The macro-cycle starts with all of the micro-cycles of the first 21 weeks and, mirroring the microcycle, finishes wth a final 3 weeks of sleeping and feeding and "staying off" my legs to let them repair.
To kick off the repair process, I elected to get a massage. The masseur was the former massage therapist of the Hungarian National Team. Both of my hands could fit loosely into one of his and two of his fingers could crush my bones without much effort. I have several very stubborn muscles, so a strong therapist sounded like a good idea. As I write this, I am bruised and sore as if I have just played a game of tackle football. The massage could be described as ... punishing. tolerable. exhausting. Not words usually associated with massage. I left the office tired and beaten, wondering if I had made the right decision. Only time will tell, but he was able to work out all but one of my major issues. The remaining issue, I believe, is caused my my seated position at work. Today I modified my desk, chair, keyboard/mouse configuration and have hopes that will do the trick.

Maintain

As I mentioned, I can not just take the final three weeks off. Just as during the micro-cycles, I didn't simply run the two quality workouts and call it a week, I ran 3-4 more times during the week to maintain the levels of fitness that I was achieving. To stop now would allow my body to start using all of the resources I have been using to repair (i.e. get stronger) for other things. That is to say, I'd lose muscle strength and fitness. So, for the next 3 weeks, I will run similar workouts to those I've already run. Workouts to which my body has already adapted. That way, my body knows that it still needs to be able to do all the things that it has been doing - with the added benefit of not stressing it further. There is, of course, a fine line to this tapering business. The jury is still out as to the extent of benefit from tapering. But all agree that some form of tapering is absolutely essential for peak performance. I'll do my best with the information I've gathered and hopefully that will bring me the desired result.

So there you have it. The hay is in the barn. All of the hardest physical work is done and now I need to just relax, prepare mentally, and allow my body to do what it does. 19 days, folks. 19.