Seven Days of Taper Trauma: Panic Attacks (Day Four)

Golden Rule of Taper: Thou shalt breathe deeply and slowly upon sudden realization you did not run enough hills/tempo workouts/speed sessions/long runs/[insert workout here].

In the final month of training I developed a terrible habit of comparing splits from similar workouts run at about the same time last fall, before the NYC Marathon. Cra-zy. Now that there's nothing left to do (but rest and keep the rust off), my NYC inferiority complex has escalated to panic. Those Newton Hills are going get me! I ran on the treadmill too much! I only did two 20-milers! My tempo runs weren't fast enough! I never ran 10 Yasso 800s, I always stopped at eight! Ahhh! And so it goes.

Once again, the RW Taper Traps article assures me this doomsday outlook is completely normal. And here's how they suggest dealing: "Collect all the information you can about the racecourse from your registration materials, the race's Web site, and even personal insight from those who have run it in previous years. If possible, run parts of the course or ride the whole thing....Knowing everything you can about that hill at mile nine will help you conquer it. You can also come up with solutions to problems that might arise during the marathon, such as how you'll handle a blister or a side stitch, so that you know you'll be prepared to overcome any obstacle."

So that's how I'm handling today's taper trauma: I'm poring over the race material, grilling Kate for advice since she ran this sucker in '07 and '08, and I'm taking slow, deep breathes every time my heart flutters in that panicky, dreadful way. I'm also going to listen to my running guru, Kara Goucher, who told Fit-Ink that she doesn't have a mantra helping her through Boston, she has a word: courage: "To be courageous to hang in for the long haul, to be courageous to run my own race, to be courageous to believe in myself." Courage is something we could all use more of during training, during taper and while we race. I'm making it my word, too. Photo grabbed from Go2Graphics.com. Posted by Liz

Seven Days of Taper Trauma: Weather Worries (Day Three)

Golden Rule of Taper: Thou shalt not visit accuweather.com more times than the bathroom on any day.

It's no secret that Kate and I are obsessed with the weather. Between 2009's brutally cold and icy winter and a very dreary, rainy spring, it's given us plenty to talk about over the past few months. But take that obsession up about—ooooh, a million—notches and you've got a glimpse of my current mental state. The Boston weather forecast is bookmarked in my browser. It's a cruel, cruel game, too. Because the weather will likely change another dozen times before Monday morning...and if I continue to click on the link, I will ride every painful high and low. It may be very windy! It may be very hot! It may be very cold! Yes, it may totally suck out there! And so what? I'll be running no matter what.

The funny thing is that when I ran my first marathon in 2002 (Vermont City), I remember waking up to a cool, almost-drizzly day. "Darn," I thought, "It's kinda gross and chilly out, I wish it was sunny and warmer." Ha! Little did I know how PERFECT that spring day was for a 26.2 mile run. I've learned since then. I suffered through the brutal 88 degree temps of Boston in 2004--which Kate documented in her awesome Boston Forecasting post--and I still have the dehydration demons haunting me to prove it. And I watched the poor, poor Chicagoans endure sizzling hot, sunny days in 2007 and 2008.

I wish there was weather karma. If you had really brutal weather in your training season or if the last time you ran a course then Mother Nature would automatically toss you a bone and promise you a beautiful, cool, but not at all windy day. But that's not how it works. So, here goes: I'm officially deleting weather.com and accuweather.com from my Bookmarks page. Who's with me? Photo grabbed from Posted by Liz