TAPER CLUMPS!

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