Now coming into the run, I knew I didn't have a lot going my way. I haven't gotten over 6 hours of sleep since Sunday night and my diet this week has been horrible, off schedule, and way under my calorie needs (see moving to a new place and long shifts at work), and I've been getting fatigue near my left Achilles heel (which was my only real concern today).
Set the alarm for an awful hour one last time for training:
Get up, so tired.. Fuel up with coffee, browse reddit, make sure it isn't going to rain..humidity 96%.. This won't be fun.
Get out, I don't feel that bad. Do my warm up miles, stretch, and take a few photos to capture the last run before the taper:
...And I get on my way. I decided the most I'd shoot for is the actual pace I was planning to do the first half of the marathon at. Around mile 3 my stomach starting getting sour. I stopped at a restroom and at least cleared the worry of an accident, but my stomach didn't feel better. It was mostly feeling that way with a decent speed. I saw a scared possum by the path, which was the most exciting thing to happen.
I felt a little fresher on the way back, picking up my pace for a little bit when I felt the quickest feeling of tightness on my Achilles tendon. I quickly said NOPE. Threw down my pace by like 2 minutes and said, I am not going to even let myself try this. I decided to just trot along and enjoy the peace and quiet of the run. Remind myself that I can now let myself heal up for 8 days.
I don't think my Achilles is hurt, I just feel I exhausted that tendon Tuesday and haven't rested enough at night. I'll talk to my PT just to clear my mind.
Now I can finally taper.
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― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
How I imagine some of us might feel before the marathon on taper:
And for those of us getting our carbs on:
YAY TAPER!!!! I hope you can finally catch up a little on rest this weekend, even with all the unpacking that probably still needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteAnd ugh to the achilles! I hope you didn't do anything serious to yours, mine never seemed to fully heal after I strained it like 6 months ago.
YAY welcome to the taper. I'm going crazy on it. Note to self: next time shorter taper. I think my husband will appreciate a shorter one too so the bitchy Kelsey stays away:)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on reaching the taper. What is your actual first half marathon pace? What is your second half marathon pace? What is your race strategy?
ReplyDeleteI plan on running the first half at 3:10 pace (that is like 7:12 right?) then see how miles 13-16 feel with a little speeding up and see if my training work and hit 7:02 pace. We'll see! So hard being my first marathon. We need to run chat again! I am still working out Sunday. Plus 66 for a high may cause me some slow down, i heat up hard
ReplyDeleteyeah, i'm trying not to dwell on it, I don't feel any signs of problems, so I'm guessing just light inflammation, just in time to rest! I'll ask PT for some stretches and take a quick test of it
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Took me a couple days of mental arguing to plan for slowing down and not kill myself over it!
ReplyDeleteHahah, I have a hard time picturing a bitchy Kelsey! i just want to get a week of good sleep and a lot of stretching and massages at PT
ReplyDeleteyeah if it is warm or muggy (60+ degrees or high dew point) i'll force myself to start even slower so I have plenty in the tank for later.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! i was hoping for 60 tops. At least be cloudy!
ReplyDeleteTaper town should be an Adult Swim cartoon played around race season!
ReplyDeleteDef need the rest! Have I missed your blog posts of late? I don't recall seeing them on my feed
me too! i have no idea what I'll be like this week. I've been looking forward to finally resting, and knowing Hanson says I can lol My therapist must be like, thank God Declan, you keep coming in broken.
ReplyDeleteYou saw a POSSUM?!?!?! I didn't know they existed in Chicago!! I grew up in the boonies, so possum sightings were quite common (I mean, they weren't always *alive* when sighted--I'd guess they were the most common roadkill I'd spot--but they were still there), but I've never seen a possum in Chicago! I'm also just slightly embarrassed by how excited I am over this news, because it's not like possums are exactly glamourous creatures...okay. I'm done.
ReplyDeleteAnyway. Yeah, I'd say that gif pretty much sums up taper for me, though it might be better if he broke down in tears at the end just to go the whole nine yards. Yesterday I got all ragey at my roommate for touching the Brita...because she had a cold last week (fortunately I was just ragey in my head, not actually to her face). As if I own the Brita in the fridge (I don't. It's for everyone). I'm a real gem right now :P
And no panicking about the forecast yet! I've been checking it every day, because what else am I going to do with all my free time?, and it's changed drastically every day since Sunday. Therefore, not worth freaking out about at least until this time next week. Because GOODNESS KNOWS the last thing us taper-crazy marathoners need is one more thing to drive ourselves crazy over.
yes! he was hunched low in the grass, looked all scared! So far, in the dark mornings i see a lot of mice, rabbits, rats, and a few raccoon and now a possum!
ReplyDeleteYou should carry a lysol spray with you to cover their sick breath when they talk!
I've been a delinquent little blogger lately :) Not because I've not been doing awesome things, but because I've been up to so much awesomeness that I don't have time to blog about all of it! Don't steal my cartoon idea!!
ReplyDeleteYou've trained so hard, you'll be gREAT. HOpefully all of these issues, your tummy, achilies will all hold off on Sunday! Hang in there. I actually hate tapering, as it plays with my head too much.
ReplyDeleteAND, ewww a possum! Geeze, I thought seeing skunks so many times throughout the summer was bad!
Good idea listening to your body. One thing I've enjoyed with my taper so far is just running easy and not thinking about going fast...it is a welcome change of pace (<--bad pun)
ReplyDeleteI saw the Marathon Sunday forecast...also hoping that the highs hold off until non or so for all us runners.
Enjoy the carbs!
Good job on slowing down. It is not always easy to do.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Taper Town! This is the first year I've been content to taper, but I've definitely felt like the guy beating the crap out of stuff in that gif in previous years. Use the extra time to catch up on some rest!!!!! Yay!!! 8 days away!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually looking forward to taper for the first time ever because it's short (yay!) and I really could use some sleep. Sounds like you're in the same boat!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting the last hard run in too! Time to rest up and trust the training!
66 degrees for the high on race day? Ugh. Here's hoping that the race temps start in the upper 40s and they don't get to 66 until the afternoon. Anyway, it it is 66, maybe it'll rain or the humidity will be low. If it's hot, I will change my goal to be a 3:20 or 3:23. Anyway, all I need is a 3:10:39 for a course PR, so, I might start more slowly than you. If you read my boring last blog post, my "pace curves" almost always skew wildly upwards for the last 3 to 5 miles, so I want to run my slow miles in the beginning so they will feel nice and relaxed rather than running torturous slow miles at the end. I am looking at a 7:20/mile first half, followed by a 7:06/mile second half.
ReplyDeleteI really really hope it cools down on race day... get it together Chicago it's October!
ReplyDeleteWe're going to drive ourselves nuts watching the weather report for the next week aren't we?
ReplyDelete