2min chapter

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167. The Ultimate Taper Episode with Author Alex Hutchinson

The Strength Running Podcast

CHAPTER

Are You Getting the Taper Cold?

A lot of runners experience the taper crazies and some runners even feel worse during the taper. Are they feeling worse because of the physical side of things or is there a strong mental component to it as well? I've definitely had the taper cold before and usually it disappears as soon as the race is over. And so look, it's not the thing real, real things can go wrong during the tapers. But we're suddenly very concerned about how we feel. We're every, every little twinge becomes magnified.

00:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's a great point. And you know, as we're talking about this and the many things that can go wrong during the taper and you just trying to over optimize everything during that taper, you know, a lot of runners experience the taper crazies and some runners even feel worse during the taper. Some runners have mentioned getting, you know, the taper cold, you know, everyone's ever seems to be getting a cold when they start reducing their workload and, you know, their mileage and their intensity of their training. So, you know, what's going on there with the psychological side of things is our runners feeling worse, particularly, are they feeling worse during the taper only because of the physical side of things or is there a strong mental component to it as well?
Speaker 1
Yeah, I definitely think that there's a there's a sort of phenomenon of hyper awareness. I know for me that I would often, you know, in the couple of days leading up to a race, you know, every time I went up a flight of stairs, I'd be like, how do I like feel? Am I bouncing up these stairs? No, I'm not. Oh my God, my legs feel like crap. Why did it feel like crap? I've been tapering. I should be feeling fresh by now. And so you start to become super, super hyper aware of how you're feeling. And I think the same, I've definitely had the taper cold before and usually it disappears as soon as the race is over. And usually what it is, is I become like, you wake up in the morning, you throw it's a little bit dry and you're like, do I have a cold? It's like my, you know, my, my six year old these days. She's every morning. She's like, I think I have a runny nose. I think I should stay home from school. And it's like, no, you don't have a right nose. It's just you're, you're, you're looking for it. And so you can always, you can kind of find evidence that maybe you have a cold, maybe you have a cold muscle, maybe you have this. And so look, it's not the thing real, real things can go wrong during the taper. But I think it's the, there's definitely a phenomenon of hyper awareness because we're suddenly very concerned about how we feel. And so we're every, every little twinge becomes magnified. Right.

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