sidebar | life and training 9.27 – 10.3
Ladies and gents, I in a week am running a marathon, and I feel like total tapering shit.
Apparently, drained, I-got-hit-by-the-crazy-train physical washouts are quite common in this period of drastically lower mileage. I take comfort in the anecdotes of others embarking on the same shitty journey, but still I harbor some worry. Particularly since I think I’m under the spell of a cold. Lovely. My runs over the weekend were harsh reminders that the intense training I underwent in previous weeks did, indeed, take a hit on my body, and now I’m in recovery overdrive and my systems are probably very confused as to why I’m not shooting 70 miles from my ears.
While I’m on these subjects…
What Are the Taper Crazies?
If you’ve never researched running or run a marathon before, you might be wondering what “tapering” means. In essence, the taper is a 2-3 week period in which mileage drops significantly, as does crosstraining and other forms of activity, in order to let your body recover before the big day. A complete halt in running is not involved, nor is the erasure of some measure of intensity – rather, the total volume is slashed.
My taper for Chicago spanned three weeks. The first was pretty marginal, as I still hit around 63 miles (85% of my highest week’s mileage) and performed a 60 minute pace run as my workout. The second week, outlined below, showed around a 60% reduction, 46 miles, with a 4 x 1k workout, as well as an elimination of heavy strength work and a shorter spin on the bike. Next week, I’ll hit around 30-35, not including the race on Sunday.
Taper Crazies refers to the accumulation of self-doubt, physical crappiness, and the sudden need to fill swaths of time you didn’t have before due to the reduction of running. Many, including myself, begin to distrust the months of leadup and wonder if all the fitness gained dissolved overnight. Temper tantrums may occur. Appetites might go into overdrive. Banana bread may be baked in huge batches to make up for the lack of recovery smoothies and the abundance of home time involved with less running.
Lastly, taper might cause a cold to sneak into the sinuses. Cue more panic and lots of Breathe Right strips.
Doesn’t all this sound fun? It’s certainly maddening, but I’m trying to combat all of the above holistically sans a big mental breakdown.
Getting ahead of FMG content…While I’m gone I won’t be very active with everyday blogging, so I scheduled days to write up posts to schedule while we’re on vacation. This also translates to creating new content so I have things to put up when I get back without having to mad-dash into recipe developing hullabaloo the minute I step off the plane.
Cleaning…I tend to deep clean the whole house before a long trip to discourage bug infestations, and honestly it’s just nice to come home to fresh bedsheets.
Morning tea…I *gasp* cut out coffee in the morning (I think I’ve discussed this before – my preworkout is way too caffeinated to justify a mug of joe a couple hours later) but wanted something hot to sip with breakfast. I bought an herbal blend with lots of warming spices and not only is it delicious but also fooling me into thinking I’m whacking this weird cold in the face with aggressive levels of cozy.
Short walks…If I sit too long, I feel itchy, so getting up to stroll around or organize something in the house has helped allay the antsiness. Keeping up with some short, easy swims has loosened me up as well.
A few things I’m digging
Trader Joes Honeycrisp Apple Candle…I burn this 90% of the time I’m home. I snagged one of the final eight or ten on my last TJ’s trip and I probably should’ve bought all eight or ten because I love it so much.
The kindness of strangers…Two guys I see all the time on my running path plus one of the Trader Joe’s cashiers have been nothing but encouraging while I train for Chicago. I’d imagine the former pair were curious about my constant running habits and eventually we got to chatting, and since they learned I was running Chicago they rooted me on when I’d pass. I think the TJs guy was wondering why my hair was always dripping wet when I came in (I usually go after swimming) and as good people in service do when they see someone all the time, he got to know me. It’s neat in an era of selfishness to witness some who are curious about and friendly to others.
Breathe Right Nasal Strips…Yeah, a weird thing to add to a list such as this, but they honestly give me a much more full breath pattern when I run in this weird bout of allergies with which I’m dealing. I didn’t expect them to work so well, but they truly do!
Slow Cooker Spiced Apple Pumpkin Butter…I’ve used my batch of this autumnal spread in three different recipes so far, with two more in the works!
Pro Compression Fall Leaf Socks…Doesn’t seem the website has these socks listed, but they were on sale last year and whenever the dew point falls below 70 I immediately break them out for as many runs as possible. I love Pro socks anyway, but this is one of my favorite designs. You can check out their inventory here! *note: I am a Pro Ambassador but in no way reimbursed for mentioning them in my posts.
Week in Training
Monday, 9.27: 9.34 miles, 10:41 pace + 50 min strength
First real run of taper, and my second longest for the week. It felt nice to finish a bit earlier and have more time to mull around before breakfast and the cooking workday began.
Strength: All bodyweight session to keep the impact low but maintain some stimulation
- 4 x 10 bosu ball side lunge SS single leg squat
- 4 x 10 ea. leg extension to single leg calf raise
- 4 x 10 decline pushup
- 4 x 5 ea. banded lunge matrix
- 4 x 12 ea. stepup
- 4 x 10 ea. airplanes
- 4 x 10 ea. bicycle crunch to jackknife
- 4 x 16 lateral hops
Tuesday, 9.28: 6.5 miles, 10:36 pace + 20 min elliptical
Such a glorious morning! Around 72, still humid but the difference in how I breathed and my legs felt during the session was enormous. I kept an average 150 bpm heartrate and took some extra time to walk a couple miles before heading indoors.
My pool unexpectedly closed due to a pump failure (apparently it was smoking, not cool) so I stepped on the elliptical after work for an easy session to get my body moving a bit.
Wednesday, 9.29: 9 miles, 9:32 pace + 1 hour strength + 1,500 yard swim (30:46)
Great morning, great run. The humidity is far more apparent at faster paces but I didn’t feel overheated even at the quicker clips. I ran 4 x 1k by feel, landing at 7:46, 7:36, 7:24, and 7:27 pace splits. Really pleased with this effort and a good little kick before my training really gets cut before next Sunday.
The pool reopened today and was FREEZING in the morning which really spurred me on at first. I swam a straight 1,200 in 23:48, then did 3 x 100 by way of a cooldown. 43 SWOLF and a 1:59/100 yard average.
Strength: barbell had no additional weight
- 4 x 10 ea. bar SLDL with knee drive
- 4 x 10 bar thruster SS row
- 4 x 10 ea. windmill
- 4 x 10 ea. bar bosu lunge
- 4 x 20 bar plie pulses SS 10 plie squat
- 4 x 10 ea. explosive jumps
- 4 x 12 ea. banded standing clams
- 4 x 20 banded deadbug
- 4 x 12 ea. side plank hip dip
- 4 x 20 birddog
Thursday, 9.30: 17.13 miles, 21.9 mph cycling (47:00) + 1,500 yard swim (29:57)
Shortened my ride this morning to accommodate taper. Felt pretty good for the most part, averaged 124W and 90 RPM which was more or less my goal.
After a very uncanny and dramatic day at work, the colder pool felt incredible. I swam straight through this workout, as is my habit lately it seems, and averaged 2:00/100 yards.
Friday, 10.1: 4.5 miles, 10:42 pace + 1,500 yard swim (30:13)
Decent run, pleasant swim, though running 4 miles felt really odd on a day I usually performed a double totaling 10-11 miles!
Saturday, 10.2: 13 miles, 10:48 pace
Well this felt like I’d never run longer than 10 miles before in my life. It was quite humid, but more so than that I think the mileage of previous weeks is finally starting to creep up on me and lay the fatigue hard on my body. My average heart rate was really high for that pace, 162 (though my resting is just fine indicating that I’m not likely sick or overtraining or anything), and the rest of the day I felt completely knocked out. J and I prepared a really awesome brunch, though, which helped boost my spirits lots.
Sunday, 10.3: 4.26 miles, 11:45 pace
Another pretty crappy run, higher than normal heart rate, and even after 9 hours of sleep I felt zonked and ready for another 9 hour nap. I went to bed at 7 on Saturday night! I cooked a big bowl of vegetable dumpling soup that evening to allay the nasty aftermath.
Total running mileage: 46.6
Total cycling mileage: 17.1
Total swimming yardage: 4,500
