Napa Training Weeks 16 and 17... Taper Time

The infamous taper has started. It seems there's something about taper time that makes all runners restless. It's like you feel like you should cram a little more training in, yet you know that what's been done is done and all you can do is trust in your training and try to rest, eat right, and not do anything stupid.

So... trust in your training. I took everyone's advice and decided not to do any longer runs than the schedule dictated.

Rest. No problem there.

Eat right....well... that's tough. I'm finding myself falling off the good food wagon more and more lately. I've also come to the conclusion the scale at the fitness center MUST have broken over the weekend. Last week I was almost scared to get on the scale on Friday (the 13th) but did anyway and was relieved to see that it still read 124. On Wednesday, again, I was scared to get on after a weekend of bad eating... and it read 119. No way! I was alone in the locker room. I weighed myself three times. Then, I jumped up and down on the scale to see if I would weigh more. Nope, still 119. Does cold weather or the barometric pressure have an effect on how the scale weighs you? I haven't weighed this low since before I had kids. Plus, there is NO WAY I lost 5 lbs in less than a week. Today, I weighed myself again... and got 118. Ummm, I think the scale needs recalibrated or something because there is no way this is right. In any case, with one more week to go I just hope I'm not gaining weight!

So here's the summary...

Week 16
Sunday - Rest. Totally toast after my night shift.

Monday - 4 miles. Made friends with the dreadmill and did it at 8:41 pace.

Tuesday - Rest. I had to rearrange the run schedule to go to a funeral and didn't feel like running afterwards.

Wednesday - 8 miles. I wore my Garmin and hit the roads. Plan was to start easy then finish at marathon pace. I had the Garmin covered up under my jacket so all I could hear were the mile beeps. This is what happened...

I overshot the finish but filed away in my head that I was capable of a sub-8:00 mile after running 7 miles.

Thursday - 12 miles. Ran 9 easy on the hamster track then ran to the dreadmill and did my last 3 at 8:41 pace. My fitness center limits our treadmill time to 30 minutes so I really can't do any long runs on it. 4 miles is the longest I can go and I'm going over by almost 5 minutes when I do.

Friday - 1 mile. I was tired. I had a ton of stuff to do. I finally got to the fitness center but just didn't feel good when I started running and all I could think about was all the other stuff I had to do so I bagged it after a mile. I originally had 5 miles on the schedule.

Saturday - 7 miles. ValenTimes 10K plus a mile warm down. Maybe rest on Friday was good. I ran a 10K PR of 47:57.

Week 16 Total Miles: 32 miles

Week 17
Sunday - Rest.

Monday  - 4 miles. Easy run on the hamster track.

Tuesday - 6 miles. Again, an easy run... except my legs still felt way fatigued from the race on Saturday.

Wednesday - 4 miles. I'm still tired and having a wee bit of panic about it.

Thursday - 8 miles. Felt better but still ran all of it easy.

Friday - Rest. Got up at 4:30 am and spent the whole day at work then rushed home to get my daughter to cheer at the Center Grove vs. North Central basketball game - which turned out to be one of the best high school basketball games EVER. CG tossed in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime after being 16 points down at the start of the 4th period and never leading the game, then won it in OT, beating the 3rd ranked 4A team in the state. It was crazy exciting. I also didn't get home until 10:30 pm. Talk about a long day!

Saturday - 4 miles. All done at 8:41 pace on the dreadmill.

Week 17 Total Miles: 26 miles

So this is it. One more week to go before my big race. Eat well, rest, and don't do anything stupid!