Reasons why I’m jealous of that cat above: he has a beer AND he is head first into a bowl of cereal. If it were socially acceptable that would absolutely be me right this second.
There are few things I wish some running sorcerer told me before embarking on this marathon training journey. While it has been exhausting and very challenging, I have been lucky to not face what many seem to. For example, chafing and runners toe or IT band syndrome. I’ve been running for years, not anywhere near the distances I have been in the past year and certainly not as consistent, but I had all of those issues at some point, suffered and learned ways to move on. So, I guess you can say, I’ve had the best possible training experience one can hope for. For this, I feel blessed.
But, uh… what the hell tapering!?
I really didn’t think I needed to research much about tapering. How hard could it be? Reduce milage by 20% then 40% then 60% in the last three weeks, carboload a day before and then boom, kick ass race day. Oh ignorant me, of course THIS would be the most challenging and frustrating time during my training, period.
For those of you out there that our considering training for a marathon, or have and want to read this and laugh at my straight up agony, this is what happens:
1. HUNGER! I feel like I’m a glutenous mess. If I’m not eating, I’m counting down the minutes until it is acceptable to eat again. My stomach has been growling WHILE eating. I’m grouchy and miserable because all I want to do 80% of the day is eat and whole 7 layer chocolate cake (note to my family and friends who will see me post race. I need a f#&ing 7 layer chocolate cake, for myself). Since I am eating clean before the race, this hunger issue really has thrown me for a loop. I’ve been cooking everything I eat, loading up on veggies and fruits but its not cutting it. If you don’t believe me, wave a pizza in front of my face and see how many seconds it takes for me to inhale it. Oh right, I can’t eat pizza. DAMNIT SOMEONE FIND ME A WHOLE WHEAT PIZZA!
2.zzzZZzzzZzzzz: This may come as a surprise to some, but during training I often hopped out of bed before the alarm, threw my gear and and easily got 5 miles in with a smile on my face before going to work. I was excited to get out there and crush it, especially for my long runs where I’d wake up every Saturday at 7AM, do my best not to wake Stevie and the kitties and venture out. Now…yeah, not so much. I could probably fall asleep anywhere and everywhere, and have including but not definitely not limited to the subway to work and at Carnegie Hall last night (whoops). Stevie is taking upstate this weekend where I plan to have an epic slumber, but until then, early nights and late morning seem inevitable at this point since my day dreams seem to revolve around me playing Goldilocks in the bedding section of Macy*s.
3. Phantom Pain: This is an odd occurrence that seems to happen to many people so I’m not THAT worried yet, but it seems on every run my joints start to ache. It goes more than it comes, but still there, I can’t possible get hurt now. I don’t know what I’d do if that happens. Actually I do know what I’d do, I’d cry nonstop for at least 3 days, breaking everything in my house. So, yeah, that really can’t happen.
4. Anxiety: This I kind of expected. While everyone says to trust the taper, it really is hard to do so, especially given all of the above factors. I find myself close to dreading these runs. Worry if I’m going to hurt myself, trying to quiet my angry stomach, begging the joint pain to stop. I’ve been anxious pretty much from the beginning about finishing. Telling myself I know I can and believing the words are two different things. Hoping they come together but for now…eek.
So yeah, tapering freaking sucks. Damn all you NYC marathoners that are done with this crap!
This post is not to dissuade you from training for such a feat, but since I wished someone warned me, I’m warning you. You will have pitfalls, you will feel like quitting, you may eat a whole bag of pretzels in 10 mins without even realizing. When that happens, do what I do, picture that finish line, visualize the medal and keep pushing on. You only get to cross this off you bucket list once.
10 more days…
I run, I asana, I repeat 
I would say satisfy your hunger. Your body needs the fuel, just don’t feed it garbage. You might not be running as much but your muscles are still burning calories, more than you think. And your carbo load peak should be 2-3 days out from the race, so it gives your body time to store the carbs
You’re totally right! I find, as a former chubby gal, it hard to keep up with the hunger since portion control was my issue in the first place, but I’m working on it. I sure am going to love all of the pasta next week (whole wheat with lots of veggies, of course). Thanks for the tips!!