Taper

So, half of the team is down to 8 days left in the season. We've done some pretty hard training in the last few weeks before this one, and our fitness levels have improved dramatically, as evidenced by the performance at Mendon West on Tuesday. Running 45 seconds faster, just 4 weeks after our previous visit, is quite an accomplishment.

Next, we will be revisiting Mendon East for Counties, 18 days after our previous visit. I have no doubt that many of our runners will knock 45 seconds of that time. Although it's a shorter time period, it will be coming as we step up our taper. We were in the middle of some pretty tough training when we were there before, and we should come in to Counties quite rested. Our first meet there was a dual meet, with dual meet-sized fields and crowds. Our next race will be Counties, with large fields and a great audience.

As we taper, it is critical that everyone gets enough sleep each night; not doing so will offset some of the benefit we are trying to capture by resting up a little bit.