Holy Mother of God. (Sorry God...)
When I first started this whole mess, I could not WAIT to taper for the 2 weeks leading up until the marathon. Coming off of Sundays when I had to get up at 5 and run 20 miles, this week's 12 was a walk in the park. Usually on Wednesdays I had to run 8 miles...today I did 4. This Sunday's run is only 8 miles. That's absolutely CRAZY. I remember the first time I had to do 8 miles at once. I honestly thought that I was going to die, and it took me a while, and I vowed that I would never enjoy running, ever, and I pretty much thought my world was over. Now 8 miles is the final part of the taper, and I can not wait to run it. I guess we have come a long way.
However, despite the perks of tapering (the rest, extra sleep, time to do my homework, not having to run as far) there are some distinct disadvantages. Here they are:
1) My body is USED to getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to run. I can't sleep in. Between my time at Loras this summer (read about that fun experience here) where I was up by 6:30 every day, and my crazy schedule here, I have been getting early pretty much every morning since June. So on a Saturday when I have NOTHING going on, I still find myself wide awake by 7:30 or 8. Yikes.
2) With all of this extra time on my hands, I find myself doing TOTALLY useless things, such as:
-Learning how to play Taylor Swift songs on the guitar so I can seranade Alyssa (lucky her)
-Facebook stalking...more than usual
-Lurking into Marie's room to talk about NOTHING for hours
-Painting my nails
-Organizing my closet
-Late night food runs
-Online shopping.
**Note: these are mostly very "girlie" activities, the likes of which I try to avoid. This is exactly why I need to be in constant motion...**
Things I should be doing (but I'm not...)
-Icing my horrible shin splints
-Stretching
-Watching what I eat
-Mentally preparing to run 26.2 miles...ha. Like thats going to help.
3) I have excessive energy. Because I don't have to run a gigallion miles every day. And its killing me. And the worst part is, when I feel like this normally, I can go play basketball or rollerblade or something. But because the marathon is lurking very close at hand, and I have a tendency to get hurt doing daily tasks (I'm clumsy), I am trying to keep physical activity that may hurt me (aka, any physical activity) to a minimum.
4) I am no longer able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. I still have to eat, and eat lots of carbs, now I just have to be smarter about it. Next week, I'm not supposed to eat anyting fatty/greasy/bad for me in general. However, a perk to next week is I am also not supposed to eat too many veggies the few days before the race. I'd say that's a fair trade off. I'm also supposed to eat carbs. And then more carbs. And then even more. But avoid cookies. What a roller coaster of food emotions.
Anyway, I used to laugh at people who talked about "taper madness". I thought it was a myth, like the Tooth Fairy or a cool Packers fan (sorry Packers fans, had to get a jab in there. Daaa Bears), but let me tell you, taper madness is real. And it will kick your ass.
11 days...oy.
-Katie
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
18....20....eff.
Oh hey world.
Yep. Basically you should be used to our random/not at all reliable posts by now. But look on the bright side, when we do update, its like Christmas morning for you! So Merry Christmas to all six of you!
So we have been doing some long runs. And by long, I mean distances that one would usually bike. Or drive. Or call a cab for. Or ride a camel or horse. But apparently to be ready to run 26.2 miles, we actually have to run 18, then 20, then 20 again. When I first looked at the schedule, I remember thinking, "damn self. Running 20 miles is going to be terrible. Good thing its so far away!". Heh. 20 miles has come and gone, and let me tell you, its not fun. At all. Now, we had our fun moments, like standing on the side of John Nolan Drive, in the bushes and weeds, laughing histerically at NOTHING (This was mile 16....) while Alyssa yelled "So THIS is what a runners high feels like...I like it!!". Sorry Alyssa, I think we were just exhausted. Or the time that we saw geese out by the hospital, and Alyssa decided she had to save them from the oncoming traffic, so she ran at them flapping. When my ipod ran out of batteries, I think I actually cursed God (sorry God, I was just tired), and that too was funny. When we first left this morning at 6am, there was lightning everywhere, and we could have died. But I was a hard ass and made Alyssa keep going. Oops. I think we dropped the F-bomb more times than either of our Moms would be happy with (sorry Annemarie and Barb....). And somehow, we survived.
Now for all you people who actually care about the running part, we broke the 20 miles into 3 smaller runs. We started with 8, then stopped back at our apartment for food/gatoraid. Then we did 7, and stopped again. We finished with a walk/crawl of a 5 miles. The time we spent actually RUNNING, not counting water stops here (which we try to keep short), was 3:36.33. (Yes I timed it to the tenth....I'm anal.). That puts us at 10.08 minute miles, which is actually faster than we did during our 18 mile one. Im not sure why the improvement, maybe the cooler temps, or were just getting used to it mentally and physically. Ok well maybe not physically, because the thought of standing up right now makes me want to cry. I'm just glad its all over.
Our next "long" run is only 12 miles! I can't believe I'm excited that I only have to run 12 miles! Barf! After that we do another 20, then its taper until the marathon. 5 more weeks!....
Happy Labor Day!!
Katie (and Alyssa too!!)
Yep. Basically you should be used to our random/not at all reliable posts by now. But look on the bright side, when we do update, its like Christmas morning for you! So Merry Christmas to all six of you!
So we have been doing some long runs. And by long, I mean distances that one would usually bike. Or drive. Or call a cab for. Or ride a camel or horse. But apparently to be ready to run 26.2 miles, we actually have to run 18, then 20, then 20 again. When I first looked at the schedule, I remember thinking, "damn self. Running 20 miles is going to be terrible. Good thing its so far away!". Heh. 20 miles has come and gone, and let me tell you, its not fun. At all. Now, we had our fun moments, like standing on the side of John Nolan Drive, in the bushes and weeds, laughing histerically at NOTHING (This was mile 16....) while Alyssa yelled "So THIS is what a runners high feels like...I like it!!". Sorry Alyssa, I think we were just exhausted. Or the time that we saw geese out by the hospital, and Alyssa decided she had to save them from the oncoming traffic, so she ran at them flapping. When my ipod ran out of batteries, I think I actually cursed God (sorry God, I was just tired), and that too was funny. When we first left this morning at 6am, there was lightning everywhere, and we could have died. But I was a hard ass and made Alyssa keep going. Oops. I think we dropped the F-bomb more times than either of our Moms would be happy with (sorry Annemarie and Barb....). And somehow, we survived.
Now for all you people who actually care about the running part, we broke the 20 miles into 3 smaller runs. We started with 8, then stopped back at our apartment for food/gatoraid. Then we did 7, and stopped again. We finished with a walk/crawl of a 5 miles. The time we spent actually RUNNING, not counting water stops here (which we try to keep short), was 3:36.33. (Yes I timed it to the tenth....I'm anal.). That puts us at 10.08 minute miles, which is actually faster than we did during our 18 mile one. Im not sure why the improvement, maybe the cooler temps, or were just getting used to it mentally and physically. Ok well maybe not physically, because the thought of standing up right now makes me want to cry. I'm just glad its all over.
Our next "long" run is only 12 miles! I can't believe I'm excited that I only have to run 12 miles! Barf! After that we do another 20, then its taper until the marathon. 5 more weeks!....
Happy Labor Day!!
Katie (and Alyssa too!!)
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