trouble in the taper (training notes 02-20-08)

i'm freaking out.

my taper went off a cliff.

i finished my last build phase the 1st week in February feeling pretty strong, but then i got sick, which knocked me out for 4 days of no activity, and right after that promptly strained my lower back.

that was all last week. now things just hurt. my ankle hurts, my knee hurts, my butt hurts, my back hurts, my shoulder hurts, my neck hurts. i've got a flare-up of my IT band and piriformis. i somehow strained my lower back in the freak act of standing up out of bed. and to top it off, my body seems to have magically decided to have a puffy episode and i'm now looking like a tanned version of the pilsbury dough boy.

WTF!?!?

normally, by this time in the taper, you're supposed to be feeling refreshed and starting to feel strong and lean, to the point that you're restless for the race to start and euphoric about the chance to just get it done. but right now, i'm feeling irritable, kind of depressed, pretty weak and very fat, definitely not happy, and really worried.

i got some treatment last Friday in the form of a deep-tissue massage and acupuncture to try and deal with my lower back strain. and i've done some workouts to try and hold on to some semblance of a taper (reference my training calendar: http://www.google.com/calendar/render).

but things aren't going according to plan.

i'm just not feeling right...especially for going 140.6 miles in this state.

and race day is only 10 days away and i'm flying out to New Zealand on Saturday night.

i don't know what the hell i'm going to do.

i just don't know.