Your athlete walks up to you in warm-ups at the Regional meet. Says their legs feel bouncy. Says they've never felt better. You feel great about it. Then they run 12 seconds slower than their April PR. Most coaches call it nerves. It's almost never nerves. You dropped volume and intensity during the taper. The neuromuscular system forgot what race pace feels like. Race pace isn't cardio. It's a motor pattern. Specific fibers firing in sequence. Tendons storing and releasing energy at a specific rhythm. Ground contact, hip extension, arm drive — all wired to that speed through repetition. It's a skill. Like shooting a free throw. Stop practicing it, and it fades. Research shows measurable drops in running economy after just 5–7 days without race pace exposure. The fitness is still there. The coordination isn't. The athlete tells you: I feel fine, I just can't find my gear. You wanted them rested. They showed up rusted.