Tag Archive for taper madness

The lamenting taperer

March 27, 2009 planet3rry 4 comments

Yesterday, my stomach was in knots… today, it’s not much better. I have that “I FEEL SO HUNGRYYYYYYY” feeling in my stomach but nothing is appealing. Well, except for comfort food. And comfort food to me is chocolate… LOTS of chocolate. But I know that what comforts me now, will ail me in the future. Woe is me!

So then, at dinner last night… my toe begins to hurt. Not just ache but HURT! I was surprised how much it hurt. Then when I got up from the table to leave, my big toe was SORE and it was tough to put weight on it. Before I left the parking lot, I had to take my shoe and sock off and see what was so wrong. Apart from being a little red, there was nothing of note.

When I got home, I tried to get the kids ready for bed, but at some point, I knew that I had to see what was up with my toe. I could see myself with a short fuse if I was upset that my foot was hurting and the kids were not listening.When I took a good look at my toe, there seemed to be some debris on the side of the toe, which was the focal point of the soreness. The toenail was in good shape, so that was good.

I found a tool that resembled a dentist’s tool that I could use to pry into the toe cuticle. My toe was already sore and I was thinking that getting the debris out would be instant relief. But I was wrong! It was still sore. I dug and scraped as best I could without yanking off the toenail (it’s been a couple of marathons since I have lost one, so there is good chance I will still have this after the race). It was still tender and there wasn’t anything that really stood out as being the culprit of the pain. All I can think is that some yard debris had gotten lodged in the cuticle just from jostling of my feet and such.

It was about 10 minutes later that I had a bacterial type scare. I thought “what if it gets infected before the marathon”… 4 hours and 45 minutes of “OUCH, Ahhh, OUCH, Ahhh, OUCH”. So, I took some hydrogren peroxide and poured it over the toe. If was manic about my toe, I was ready for the rubbing alcohol to do it’s killing, if it meant extra pain… I was going to run.

The amount of reaction with the hydrogen peroxide was underwhelming. Being unimpressed, I put the Hydrogen Peroxide back and started to leave the bathoom, toe still sore. Untill… “AH HA, where is that Melaleuca Oil?”

I took the pure melalueca oil and poured it over the wound. My toe felt better, less sore and within 5 minutes, I could walk without noticing my toe. And there was much rejoicing!

Today (as in Friday, as in 2 days away), I am in a weird state. I’m still nervous, I can’t seem to eat. I feel dehydrated. I am beginning to wonder if I can perform well on Sunday. I am having Taper Anxiety! Which reminds me… I need to go make my pace card, so I know what I need to be running and be prepared…Fin

running , , , ,

Final Daze

March 26, 2009 planet3rry 3 comments

“Where are you?”

[With the fear that my already altered routine, would yet be rerouted again]

“Just about to get on Pellissippi…”

[My Spidey-sense telling me that a trip to a certain school]

“The School called, The Elder threw up alot in class. He’s with the nurse. Can you go get him? I don’t know how bad it is but they said it was ‘alot.’”

[Had the call been 10 seconds later, the answer would not have been as easy]

“Yep, See you at the house.”

“Thanks!”

“Come in Houston, this is Planet3rry. I have a change in trajectory. I need coordinate reroute and downloaded to the navigation system”

So, when I got there, he was fine. Probably some post-nasal drip that caused him to gag enough to throw up “alot.” I don’t know, but I brought him back home, and he’ll have to take it easily so that we can, with confidence, send him back to school. He did have a slight fever at the nurse’s but that could be a bodily reaction to hitting the ‘purge the stomach‘ button.

So now I need to worry about whether or not there is a viral presence and should it weild it’s ugly self, will it waylay me. There has been a lack of poop stories on this blog, because there hasn’t been any (of note) for this training cycle. Not like it was last fall when I basically cut my underwear supply in half because I had to leave it as fertilizer somewhere.

And there is this: The Weather Forecast

The Good Thing: Weather here is hard to predict. The Bad Thing: Weather here is hard to predict.

A Picture of the weather

I can’t say that I am all to optimistic about the weather forecast for Sunday. I like that it’s partly cloudy with little chance of rain. But looking at the temperature, that’s a big nose dive. For me, the 50s area is the hardest to dress for during a run. It always seems that just a shred too much clothes and I feel overheated, but one layer too less and I am uncomfortable.

My Awetistic mind has come up with a concept that is already conceived, I am just converting it for marathoning. I’ve had the luxury of having wonderful support crews at many of my marathons (Richmond, Rutledge, Harpeth hills, etc) and so at this race, like in 2006… it’s me and the course (and all the people who I am pacing!). So, I am creating a few “Not Yet Named with a Cool Name” items for the course. I might have to include a pair of gloves in there. I can see it now, some Noob is going to have to get first aid because of frost bite or something. Not on MY watch. We are close enough to the river that if you can’t hack it, you are turning this marathon into a duathlon!

Well, I have some other things to get done. At least being busy has made me “forget” that I am in a taper… madness I tell you! Of course, as soon as Monday rolls around, I will have to be thinking about strategy on “The Pig“… will this MADNESS never end? Oh wait… I signed up for it… my bad. Carry On… Geek Stamp

Life In General, running , , ,

Taper minus 10

November 5, 2008 planet3rry 3 comments

Roger that!

There are 10 DAYS, well technically 9 and some change and I will on the road to complete the first of two marathons back to back. This will be a first for me, as I have done 2 marathons MONTHS apart, not 8 days… and it’s no wonder that I will be officially qualified to join the Marathon maniacs.

During my 12 miler last night, I did two things. First, I realized that I am more anxious about these two marathons since I have never done this before. I don’t know what to expect. Do I hold back on the first one to save energy for the next one? Do I “race for a PR” in the first and then just survive for the second one since i would be so sore anyway, why have two mediocre times and have one good one and one not-good one? Will I recover enough from the first to be ready for the second – which is marketed as a Damn Tough Course? I don’t know… where as I know what to expect from the one and done marathon season, I don’t know here.

So, what does any good statistician do to find data? Research! I contact the Ever Pretty and Uber Humble Triathlete Shirley Perly on what she does between close races. She does an insane amount of races in a short period of time and even combines this with air travel. Her VERY supportive husband Dave is behind her in her quest to run marathons in every state… and on top of marathons she does Triathlons and so, she is always on the go. Now what’s good for Shirley won’t necessarily be good for Terry, BUT it’s the theory behind what she does that I was looking for the most. She was able to give me a great gameplan on what I am going to do post race and that’s content for another blog post.

Second, I PRACTICED! A dress rehearsal if you will of the finish line. I ran 12 miles yesterday and actually ran a Tempo pace for the mid mileage run. it’s the last of the longer-faster distances that I will run and I was very pleased with the results of the run. As something that I do and encourage others to do, is to visualize the finish line. I don’t have any idea of the Rutledge Marathon course, to know the spots on the course when I begin my Finishing Sequence.

Last Night, I started with close to 2 miles left in my 12 mile run. I had been running fast all evening, so my legs were tired and closer to what they would feel like during the race. In my practice Finish, I keep well aware of the mileage left to go… 2 miles, 1.75, 1.5 etc. From here, I can usually Do The Math to know if it is going to be close, if I shooting for a goal time. As was last year’s Chickamauga Marathon when I finished in a PR time with 35 seconds to spare.

I was also visualizing other runners out on the course and locking in on a certain runner ahead of me. Either to try to pass before the finish or use as a rabbit (pacer) to get me to the finish line. Using a pace takes the mental effort of thinking about keeping pace, but you can “disengage” your mind and either stare ahead at the course or the time clock. It’s a trick to keep you forgeting how much pain you are in.

In the last 0.25 miles, I imagined that I could see the Time Clock and started my “Final Approach” where I begin to accelerate and estimate who I can pass or if I just need to keep the pace that I am in.

I am a little sore today, which is to be expected given the speed that I ran yesterday. The speedwork won’t help me for my race next Saturday, but it will give me a mental boost.

My biggest concern right now is the course. I know that Harpeth Hills is going to be, well, hilly. Rutledge… not sure. It’s suppose to be “flat” but “flat” in East Tennessee is really gently rolling. Of course, that might be advantageous, because I would be working some different muscles in the Hills of Harpeth. So we will see…

running , , ,

Pre Race Day #1

November 22, 2005 planet3rry No comments

Well, I didn't exercise at lunch today because I am in another mini-taper for my Thanksgiving race – Autumnfest 8k. I would like to thank the co-worker that brought in what can best be described as Terrybane… or commercially known as Tootsie Rolls. I have been “carbo-loading” with these things all day long, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, thank goodness that they are lower in fat than Tootsie Rolls cousins such as Snickers and Twix (just to name two). I think that I may have eaten the entire bag… oops.

So, this rest day is supposed to help me perform faster on Thursday. So in the long term, the taper is supposed to help me. In the short term, it drives me crazy. But I should mention that this mini-taper is a little more drastic than the regular taper that I use for marathons. In that taper, I generally reduce the number of miles that I run gradually over 14-17 days before the marathon. At this point in training there is little more that you can do and the only BIG thing that you can do it injure yourself by OVER training.

So, we runners taper. Being the educated runner that I am, I am applying this mantra to my shorter races. So for my 8k on Thursday, I ran 2.3 yesterday and nothing for today and Wednesday (Autumnfest eve). Tonight, I will also make some sort of pasta with jalepeno ranch dressing dish or Torta (a filipino dish that is more like an omelete on steroids – but not EPO) and rice. This will aid in my carbo-loading, so that I will have plenty O' Glycogen to battle Lactic Acid Thursday morning.

Something else that I did in efforts to make me faster was get a hair cut. I attached a before and after picture just for posterity. And since Laura made such a funny comment yesterday
(hardy har har), you'll see that my mono brow has been severed like a finger in stowaway bed… or at least until it grows back.

Life In General , ,

Race Week Taper

November 10, 2005 planet3rry No comments

It is common practice (almost mandatory) in marathoning to decrease the amount of miles ran per week progressively as you approach marathon day. This transition is called The Taper and is probably the worst part of the whole marathoning training. For the past 10-16 weeks you have putting the mileage on the road, doing the long runs and recovery run, etc. Only to have the last 14 days prior to the marathon basically become your slackest days of training.

Why is it important? The not-so techincal skinny on the Taper is that, you can't do anything in two weeks that is going to affect your performance in the marathon, except for getting injured! So, you relax the last 2 weeks and let your body heal and it will get stronger and faster, if you have done the work before the taper to warrant increases in performance. At two weeks, you are about at maximum, and waiting any longer will do no harm, but won't help either. In the second week before the marathon you may run only 10-15 miles and the last week maybe 5-10. And this is more to calm your nerves than anything else.

So, I am in a mini-taper right now. I have cut off my workout for Thursday and Friday. I'll be drinking more water tonight and tomorrow. Tonight I will have Pasta with Jalepeno Ranch Dressing as I “carbo Load” (another running term) and perhaps a beer or two (the fun “carbo-load”). Funstuff

Upcoming Races:
11/12 Chickamauga 10 miler (Chickamauga, Ga), Goal time: 1:26:00
11/24 Autumnfest 8k (Knoxville, TN), Goal time 37:30
12/04 Reindeer Run 5k (Maryville, TN), Goal time 21:55
(indicates potential Personal Record for distance)

Life In General

Marathon Jitters

November 7, 2002 planet3rry No comments

Talk about being nervous, this is it, down to last few days before the race actually starts. I saw on the website that there are about 3200 people registered for the marathon at this point! That is a BUNCH of people. Also the weather looks like it is going to be unseasonably warm (in the 70s), so we will see how that affects the runners. Well, next update should be my marathon review.

Kudos to Jim Monihan who finished his first 5k last month! Go Jim Go!

running ,