Signs

Now that my taper is in full force and I am a week out from the race my body is giving me signals. I have been through many a taper to know what is real and what is not. The time that I had sharp radiating pain in my left upper thigh area that woke me up at night, that wasn't a minor body repairing itself kinda signal. That time it was a full fledged stress fracture in my femur and that pain was real. Most of the time though, the pains are phantom pains. From my experience, when the body gets a chance to recover it doesn't hesitate and it gets to work. In turn this means that little aches and pains emerge in the regeneration process. That does not mean that I have an injury, nor does being sore one week out mean that I am going to be sore on race day. The signs my body are sending my brain say differently, but as I will demonstrate not all signs need heeding, and not all signs are correct.

Obviously, they don't heed this sign!

Coolest sign ever, but they were closed!

For now, I have been reading the signs but I have been interpreting them my own way. I know that pre race anxiety makes everything seem like it is an injury or problem, I also know that I had lots of aches and pains in training that went away as soon as I was on the bike. Amazing what a little adrenalin and fix of endorphins can do! One week to go and on race day my body better display the open for racing sign, and it better be correct!