Taper madness

My mileage this week is way down as I taper in preparation for next week's race.

Many runners experience what they call taper madness. After months of training building up mileage, they feel a void with the lack of running in the last couple of weeks. I didn't think this was going to be a problem for me as I looked forward to taking it easy.

However, it seems that I'm showing symptoms. Since I'm running less, I can push harder. Right? I ran faster for Monday's tempo run. I run faster for Wednesday's hill run. I ran faster for yesterday's "long" run (albeit only 4 miles).

I only have a couple more runs scheduled before the race and those are only 30 and 20 minutes respectively. If I do those on Monday and Wednesday like I usually do, that leaves 3 days of nothing before Sunday. That seems like too long. Do I squeeze one more run in on Friday? Do Monday and Thursday instead?

Then there's the sleepless nights as I lie in bed and calculate splits and race paces trying to decide on my goal time. Do I go conservative, try to break 2 hours or go for a PR (personal record)?

Oh, the madness!