Tapering and happiness go together. Tapering is the process of cutting back on your training distances in the weeks and days leading up to an endurance race such as a marathon or half marathon. Happiness goes with tapering because those endurance runners and walkers who master tapering tend to be the happiest with that pre-race period as well as with their race results.

I can best explain “tapering for happiness” by sharing an email exchange that I had with a woman named Kim who wrote to me recently. Here, in this order, are her original message, my reply, and her thank-you. I hope that it helps you to taper for happiness!

Kim’s Original Message

After seven years of running approximately six miles a day for five days a week, I decided to take on a marathon.

I’ve done the training and put in the miles. I already feel like I’ve accomplished a major goal. Now, I’m wondering what I’ve gotten myself into and am nervous.

When I’ve run races, I’ve been almost overwhelmed by the sensory overload of having so many people around as I am used to the peace of being alone on my runs. Now, twenty thousand people and spectators?

At this point, I am trying to focus on rest and taper. I’m trying to overcome stress and overthinking everything.

I’m looking for any tips to enjoy the experience.

Thank you,
Kimberly

My Reply

Kim,

Thank you for writing. Your wonder and nerves are totally understandable … and typical!

Regarding the sensory overload, I know what you mean. When I would reach somewhere around mile 22 in a marathon, the spectators used to be too noisy for me. It was as if the stress of running / walking that far had hypersensitized me to sound. But now I consider it from the spectators’ perspective. They’re excited for the other racers and me, and they probably have been standing around for hours by that point. So they have a lot of positive energy to share.

The rest-and-taper thing is BIG for first-time marathoners. It seems illogical. But tapering and rest right before an endurance race are proven techniques to have a better race.

Regarding the overthinking thing, here’s what my coaches have taught me. If you’ve put in the miles (or kilometers), then your body is ready. But your mind will keep racing for “things to do” — so GIVE IT something to do. What, exactly? Make a checklist of everything that you want in place for the morning of the race. (I talk about checklists in Mental Tricks for Endurance Runners and Walkers.) And I mean EVERYTHING. Seriously! Keep your mind busy this week making a checklist of the clothes you’ll need, the fact that your GPS wrist unit has to be charged, when you have to leave home to reach the parking area in time, etc.

By the way: If you believe that checklists are for wimps, then consider the fact that airline pilots and surgical teams — whom we trust with our LIVES — use checklists all the time!

Finally, and related to my about-to-be-published new book (Gratitude Power for Runners and Walkers), start making a list of everything for which you feel grateful as a runner. Maybe even share the list with your husband and with your running buddies. Doing this will put you in a state of gratitude that will help you to enjoy the race as well as your time remaining leading up to the race.

Best wishes with your upcoming race!

Health/Love/Happiness,

Kirk

Kim’s Thank-You

Thank you so much for taking the time to e-mail me a response.

I believe in making lists, and training for this marathon has made me a believer in having a plan.

This is excellent advice that I will put into action today. I am looking forward to writing about why I run, already. You are more than welcome to publish my e-mail.

Love,
Kimmie

Do You Taper?

Does this email exchange resonate with you? If you struggle with tapering, then please share your struggle here. Or, if you have mastered tapering, then please share how you mastered it!

Either way, please leave a comment below so that fellow runners and walkers can benefit from your experience!

photo credit: Eneas

Compression wear was the topic of an interview of me three months ago by a track and cross-country coach for a U.S. high school.

Interviewing everyone from an exercise physiologist and a big-city newspaper writer to me, he wanted to know our advice on training and racing in summer heat.

He approached me because of what I had written about compression wear and because I live in the warm climate of Houston, Texas.

The article just got published in a U.S. running magazine, but none of the material from his interview of me made it into the article, apparently due to space restrictions.

What I said in the interview is valuable, especially for any endurance runner or walker who lives in a warm climate and is considering buying compression wear.

So here is the transcript of that unpublished interview:

Compression Wear in Summer

What pushed you to start running in compression wear during the hot, humid summer months of Texas? What, if any, scientific basis was there at the onset?

I started running in compression wear when I got a pair of compression tights as a Christmas gift. My sister-in-law, who is not a runner, bought them as a cool-weather item for me to wear the following month in the Chevron Houston Marathon. I wore them in that race and found that they seemed to reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). So I kept wearing them during my long runs on Saturday mornings with my group training program — all the way into July and August, which tend to give us the highest temperatures and humidity here in Houston, even at five in the morning!

The Benefits of Compression Wear

How do you feel training in such clothing benefits you as an athlete?

Since I got that first pair of compression tights, I switched to a different brand that seems to give me even stronger compression, even less DOMS, and better stabilization of my knees. I’m 6’3″ tall, so that last benefit is especially important to me. I also train with a short-sleeve compression top from that same, second brand. And I like how it tends to pull my shoulders back, which seems to help with respiration.

Concerns and Cautions

Any concerns or cautions related to running in compression tops and tights during the warmer months of the year?

I would say that anyone can replace a non-compression top with a compression top without much trouble, no matter whether the weather is hot or cold. But I have two suggestions for runners who are new to wearing compression tights. If you want to wear them in the summer, then you may want to begin with shorter-distance runs — because they will be warmer than shorts. If you want to wear them in the winter, then expect that you may have to wear an extra set of tights or that you may want to get a pair of compression tights that are designed for cold weather. After once going on a 25-degree-Fahrenheit training run with a lighter pair of compression tights and nothing on top of them, I returned home and peeled off those tights, only to discover that I had gotten the cold-weather equivalent of a sun burn on my legs!

Final Thoughts

Anything compression-related you’d like to add?

Hospitals regularly put compression socks on patients to help with blood-flow return from the legs. So you have to know that compression wear works. Put simply, compression tights help to reduce DOMS and to improve stability, and compression tops help with posture and respiration. I would add that compression wear does an even better job at pulling perspiration away from the skin than does wicking, non-compression wear, apparently because the fabric is always in contact with the skin. I recommend that any runner who is curious about compression wear perhaps start with compression shorts or socks … and then go from there!

What Say You?

Wearing the right clothing in hot weather is crucial to your happiness as an endurance runner or walker. What do YOU wear in the summer to stay happy? What is the oddest clothing that you have seen an endurance runner or walker wear in summer heat? Are you still trying to find the perfect clothing for a run or walk in the heat of summer? I would love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below!

photo credit: Scott Ableman

Regrets and happiness do not go together, including for endurance runners and walkers.

The word “regret“ – the roots of which are the prefix “re-” and a Germanic word for weeping — means sorrow for what has been done or not been done.

And sorrow is the antithesis of happiness.

So I have a question for you:

What Regrets Do You Have
as an Endurance Runner or Walker?

I started thinking about this recently after reading an article by Bronnie Ware, an Australian singer/songwriter who worked for many years in palliative care.

Her “Regrets of the Dying” article enumerates five common regrets that she observed among people close to the ends of their lives.

I believe that these five common regrets can teach us a lot about how to be happier as endurance runners and walkers.

So let me quote each regret from her article and tell you some lessons that I get.

I then will ask you what YOU take from these regrets and how they can help you to be happier with your endurance running or walking.

Five Common Regrets,
and What We May Learn from Them

1. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

The lessons that I get from this include:

• If I have a hunch to sign up for a race, then I should do it.
• If my friends think I’m weird by completing marathons, half marathons, or other endurance races, then I should not try to change their minds but I should also keep doing what I am doing.
• If my body tells me not to work out today, then I should ignore my training schedule for the day.

2. “I wish I didn’t work so hard.”

The lessons that I get from this include:

• If I sacrifice all participation in a sport that I love for the sake of my job, then it is a mistake.
• If training “hard” means ignoring the friendships of fellow runners or walkers, then it is a mistake.
• If I become so obsessed with my training and racing that I ignore the needs of my family or even my own body, then it is a mistake. 

3. “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”

The lessons that I get from this include:

• I should not let others talk me into a race that does not feel right for me.
• I should be open with my coaches and training partners about my training.
• I should not sugar-coat my reaction when I am disappointed with a race or training session, but I also should not hide my excitement when I am especially pleased with my performance or some other aspect of the race or session.

4. “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”

The lessons that I get from this include:

• If I have a choice between training with a friend and training without a friend, then I should choose the former.
• Training and racing with friends will teach me more about relationships and love (not to mention about training and racing) than will training and racing on my own.
• Endurance training and racing is as much about others as it is about me.

5. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

The lessons that I get from this include:

• Being unhappy today leads to regret tomorrow, which equals unhappiness tomorrow.
• I have a duty to my future happiness to be happy NOW with my endurance training and racing.
• Being happy now is as simple as LETTING myself be happy now.

Share Your Wisdom

So now I invite you to join the conversation by sharing your wisdom about regrets and happiness.

• Do any of these five regrets resonate with you?
• What regrets have you had about your endurance running or walking?
• How did you “catch” yourself regretting something?
• What did you say or do to eliminate a regret?
• How has your happiness level changed as you have let go of regrets?

Post a comment below. I would love to get your perspective!

photo credit: andronicusmax