Vermont Beast is days away, which means you are tapering this week. No hard workouts. No long runs. All this extra time that you do not not know what to do with.
Hotel has been booked long time ago. You took Friday off (and Monday – just in case). You have a pretty good idea of what goes in your gear bag.
Now what?
How will you keep yourself busy, until Friday morning or afternoon, when it will (finally!) be time to jump in your car or on a plane, and make your way to the obstacle racing mecca – Killington, Vermont?
Before you crack under pressure, and head out for yet another tough hill workout… hang tight! I have compiled an awesome reading list for you.
Grab a recovery shake or something, and make yourself comfortable. Or hold plank with a tire on your back while reading, if you are so inclined.
1. Calm your nerves. Read the top 10 tips for conquering the Vermont Beast.
Review the elevation profiles of previous races.
2. Pack your bags. Still wondering if you have everything you need? Review the list of what to pack.
3. Know what to expect. Find a good race recap from one of the previous years – like this one from 2013, or this one from 2014.
Review some predictions of what you could be in for.
4. Plan your recovery. Check out what my recovery week after Spartan Ultra Beast looked like.
Learn about 5 things you can do to recover from a long race.
5. Blast some tunes. Put together a motivational playlist for the road, like this playlist from the inaugural Ultra Beast or this one from the Spartan Death Race.
Enjoy the ride. And try to forget that Norm promised to make this the hardest race of the year – The Beast of the East.
With Ultra Beast 2012, Beast 2013 and Beast 2014 under my belt, I have now done that course four times. I think I’ll sit this one out. I will catch some of you crazy kids in Tahoe.
Hugs, SOLO