In preparation for this upcoming weekend's 50 mile race, I began the tapering process a couple of weeks ago. This involves significantly decreasing running mileage so as to give your body time to rebuild and recoup after weeks/months of high mileage training. At the peak of my training, I was hitting about 63 - very hilly - miles per week. Beginning Christmas week, I cranked it down to 40, then 32, and now, this week, I'll run about 10 miles before the race.

And I'm going batshit crazy.

This tends to happen during a taper for me: I'm restless, constantly hungry (even though I'm not needing the fuel), so I've put on a pound or two, on edge, and desperately wanting to go out and run for 4 hours in the woods.

Oh, and I give up caffeine the week prior too.

I'm thinking I'm not much fun to be around at the moment.