How to decide when you already know – taper madness strikes again

So here I am, the day before my race, rubbing my hands together with glee over the weather forecast that was tailor-made for me – cool, sunny, not too windy – just right.  The only trouble is, now I can’t decide what to wear.

You see, when it is really hot outside, it’s not easy to run, but it’s easy to get dressed – wear as little as possible, as long as it is legal.  It may not stop you from overheating, but it’s the best you can do.

Same goes for when it is really cold (although it is easier to run than when it’s really hot, unless it is also really windy and the snow is building up on your eyelashes, sticking your eyes shut so you can’t see where the icy patches are…but I digress) – wear everything you own.  Even if you overheat, you need only unzip your coat a little to vent some hot air (much less likely to haunt you in the future than if you vent hot air on Facebook).

But at times like these, where it’s not too cold, and it’s not too hot, it is remarkably difficult to figure out how to dress for “just right” – where’s Goldilocks when you need her?  Of course, you might be saying, “but Karen, the weather’s been like this for a couple of weeks now, and you’ve been running in it – why don’t you just wear what you’ve been wearing?”

To which I would have to say, my smart aleck friend…well, yeah, you’re right.

But it’s not that simple! Looking back through my training log, I described two runs in which I wore the same basic combination of layers – at 3 degrees it was just right, but at 6 degrees I have the word “overdressed.”  Not only that, one of my favourite online weather sources says the skies will be sunny and perfect while the other says partly cloudy – and that can make all the difference!  Last but not least, I am running in a different city –it is theoretically possible that what they call 5 degrees is drastically different from what I call 5 degrees, even if they both end in “Celsius.”

The good news is that I know I am just being silly – in the end I will just wear the same sorts of things I always wear in this weather, and dress for maximum versatility – and I will be fine. But really, you can’t have a (mini) taper without a little taper madness – or at least, I can’t!  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and fret about my nutrition plan.