Asia asked for it.
I’m now in my “tapering” period--my training effectively ended with my twenty mile run at the end of March. Everything I do from here on out is just gravy. I can’t really improve anything now, but I can get injured or over-train. My physical therapist suggested that I not do any running between now and the marathon, to help my knee heal and to let my legs get back into running shape.
Most days I walk around thinking “I can’t believe the marathon is on Monday. I can’t believe that I trained for the marathon. I wonder what the weather will be like on Monday. I wonder if I will be the slowest person. How many days until Monday? It’s CRAZY that the marathon is only four days away!” And so on. Now that it’s Thursday I need to really get ready—increase my carb intake, drink lots of fluids, get lots of rest. The last two weeks have been difficult because I’ve decreased the amount of running and exercise I’m getting, but my level of anxiety and energy has increased. All of this to say—be thankful you’re not my girlfriend and don’t have to deal with my mood swings and my rearranging of the house.
My stress is overshadowing my excitement at this point. I’m definitely noticing my lack of race experience, and even though I’ve been doing a lot of long runs, I feel really unprepared. Don’t get me wrong, I feel well-trained. I’m confident in my body’s ability to get to the finish line—although I’m also confident that it will be quite painful and I wish that people would stop asking me if I think my toenails will fall out (the answer is yes, I imagine I’ll lose a nail or two if the conversations I’ve had with other runners is any indication). Mostly I worry about little things—should I carry extra water? Is it foolish to wear my fuel belt? Nobody’s wearing fuel belts in the pictures I see. You know helpful little nagging thoughts like that.
That’s what I’ve been up to/thinking about. This weekend will be a lot of resting and relaxing, putting together my bag of race-day goodies and picking up my number, eating lots of carbs and probably watching Hair the movie. Also I will be receiving “Happy Birthday” phone calls on Saturday thankyouverymuch.
Y’all can keep an eye out for me on race day. Check the Marathon’s website and watch my process—I’m bib # 19009. Or come see part of the race, I'll be wearing a neon green singlet and staying to the right until heartbreak hill and then staying to the left up the hill and down Beacon at which point I'll probably just be staggering along thinking I'm running but really laying down in the road.
I’m now in my “tapering” period--my training effectively ended with my twenty mile run at the end of March. Everything I do from here on out is just gravy. I can’t really improve anything now, but I can get injured or over-train. My physical therapist suggested that I not do any running between now and the marathon, to help my knee heal and to let my legs get back into running shape.
Most days I walk around thinking “I can’t believe the marathon is on Monday. I can’t believe that I trained for the marathon. I wonder what the weather will be like on Monday. I wonder if I will be the slowest person. How many days until Monday? It’s CRAZY that the marathon is only four days away!” And so on. Now that it’s Thursday I need to really get ready—increase my carb intake, drink lots of fluids, get lots of rest. The last two weeks have been difficult because I’ve decreased the amount of running and exercise I’m getting, but my level of anxiety and energy has increased. All of this to say—be thankful you’re not my girlfriend and don’t have to deal with my mood swings and my rearranging of the house.
My stress is overshadowing my excitement at this point. I’m definitely noticing my lack of race experience, and even though I’ve been doing a lot of long runs, I feel really unprepared. Don’t get me wrong, I feel well-trained. I’m confident in my body’s ability to get to the finish line—although I’m also confident that it will be quite painful and I wish that people would stop asking me if I think my toenails will fall out (the answer is yes, I imagine I’ll lose a nail or two if the conversations I’ve had with other runners is any indication). Mostly I worry about little things—should I carry extra water? Is it foolish to wear my fuel belt? Nobody’s wearing fuel belts in the pictures I see. You know helpful little nagging thoughts like that.
That’s what I’ve been up to/thinking about. This weekend will be a lot of resting and relaxing, putting together my bag of race-day goodies and picking up my number, eating lots of carbs and probably watching Hair the movie. Also I will be receiving “Happy Birthday” phone calls on Saturday thankyouverymuch.
Y’all can keep an eye out for me on race day. Check the Marathon’s website and watch my process—I’m bib # 19009. Or come see part of the race, I'll be wearing a neon green singlet and staying to the right until heartbreak hill and then staying to the left up the hill and down Beacon at which point I'll probably just be staggering along thinking I'm running but really laying down in the road.
Alana wrote this crap at
7:19 AM
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