Funny how you learn new words and lingo when you insert yourself into something new like triathlon. I now know the meaning of the following endurance sport words/phrases:
Tapering
Bonk
Brick
PR
Draft
Pull Buoy
And my personal favorite.....fartlek.
Tapering is done the last few days before a race, and involves decreasing the distance and intensity of your training in order to let your body be in a rested state the day of the race. You would think that someone who has been pounding and pushing their body 5-6 days per week would look forward to this, right?
Wrong. So very, very wrong.
If you go to Google Images and type in "marathon tapering', you may be surprised at what you see. Here are a couple of my favorites:
So, instead of being excited and feeling great because I get a couple of days "free", I find that I am cranky and constantly paranoid about not being able to finish because I took two days off.
I guess the cranky part is from not getting the dopamine rush everyone always talks about. I am a bit skeptical about that, as I have yet to find myself thinking, "man I feel great!" in the middle of a run. Now I will admit that I get a pump when I finish a run and have done well, but that may just truly be because I'm so happy to actually be done. During the run I am usually thinking things like, "I'm going to die" and "ok maybe not die but there's definitely potential for throwing up".
But what's worse is the guilt. Oh yes...the guilt. Run less and eat more carbs? What?! I have had days where I have eaten large amounts of ice cream and felt less guilty than I do today after eating one tiny danish at our staff meeting- because in my head I could justify the ice cream with the workout I had done that day. My husband asked me how long I was going to run last night as I packed on all my gear. "Thirty minutes", I responded.
"That's all?"
On Saturday, I will participate in the Queen Bee half marathon. Last year I ran it in 2 hours and thirteen minutes. That means I need to run a 10 min/mile pace in order to get a PR (personal record). I realize that for many people a 10 minute mile is a "piece of cake". For me, it is more like a eating a whole plate of hot wings in a contest- I think I can technically do it, but am a little worried about how hard I will sweat, if I will have to stop in the middle, and if I will puke in front of everyone at the end.
Endurance sports are physically challenging for sure. But the truth is that they are just as challenging mentally. I will admit that when it comes to exercise, I have spent most of my life as a quitter. Or at least a "stopper". When my muscles started to burn lifting weights, or my breathing got heavy while running....well, I stopped.
I think that's why endurance sports have been so good for me. If I didn't have a plan tacked up on my fridge that said I am supposed to run 6 miles today, I would get to mile 3 and decide that was good enough.
I would. That's just the truth.
But knowing I have to go home and log my miles and time against the plan, I will for some reason bust my ass and push past limits I didn't know I had. Because those that know me, know that I LOVE to check things off a list :).
So if I have one piece of advice from my reflections during the dreaded taper week, it's that setting goals is a great way to get yourself started, as well as push you to levels you never dreamed of. I started with a goal of jogging for 1/4 of a lap on the track. That's 1/16 of a mile. But the next week I did 1/2 of a lap, and on Saturday I will jog my third half-marathon of the year. And if this "stopper" can do it- so can you.
Bring on the taper. And bring on the carbs. Just don't look at me funny while I'm eating them and ask me how my workout was today. Because I might throat-punch you.
Good luck and safe running to all of my friends participating in races this weekend. May your feet carry you swiftly and without blisters, and may your thighs go unchafed from your running shorts!
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