The Taper Trap

Well,
Tomorrow is the last long run with the Want2be’s before the Seattle Half Marathon, which is next weekend.
This means that over the last 3 weeks or so we’ve started to taper. It seems like it’s been a longer taper than most, and tapering always makes me nervous.
Even though training for this race has been long, and I’ve ran the distance (and over the distance) probably 4-5 times over the period of the 5 or 6 months we’ve been training, I still always feel like I’m “losing” my strength and speed.  These last few weeks seem more like a psychological test rather than a strength test.  My brain is fighting my body.  My brain says “Hey! You’re going to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for if you don’t keep logging those long kilometers and you’re going to FAIL at this race if you don’t get out there and push push push!” but my body says “Yawn. I’m tired. Time for a rest now and where’s my beer?!”. I guess it means I’m ready for the race, but this brain of mine is really doing a number on me. 

Runner’s World has a good article on tapering (it’s for the marathon but the rules can apply to half’s as well).  The biggest keys they mention for the last week before a race is that your mileage has to drop to new lows and should be slower than usual.   Focus on your confidence. Nerves are normal but try to remember that all the work you’ve put into training and preparing WILL pay off (this is easier said than done).  They also mention to not try anything “new” – no new foods, no new activities or treatments…just keep things plain and simple. 

Keeping things plain and simple for this race might be a little difficult for me though. Since we’re going to Seattle, a city I love dearly and wish I could live in, I’m going to want to see and do a lot.  Also, it will be Thanksgiving weekend in the United States which means SHOPPING.  Well, it technically means giving thanks, of course, and spending time with family, but we already had our Canadian Thanksgiving so screw that! I’m going shopping!  Friday and Saturday will be hard for me, since I’m going to have to limit my walking around downtown. I’m going to have to plan out a route between my favourite shops (All Saints Spitalfields, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie etc.) and pace myself. Luckilly we are staying until Tuesday morning so I can get my shopping needs filled (and my credit card filled) between the race and our departure on the Clipper.  We also are renting an apartment instead of staying in a hotel. We did this when we ran the DisneyLand ½ Marathon in September 2011 but stayed in a house that time. It was probably the best trip I had had in a long time and the only way I want to go on longer trips from now on (other than all-inclusive holidays).  When we stayed in Anaheim we were able to get our own groceries, cook in our own kitchen, float around in our own pool and have multiple bathrooms, bedrooms, and a sitting area.  It was much more comfortable than a hotel and we didn’t have to share it with hundreds of other tourists.  We also saved a lot of money by not eating out for every meal, and since we were running (and we are all picky about what we eat before we run), it worked out perfectly not having to look for a coffee shop that was open at 4:30am.  Hopefully this time around will be the same – just knowing that we have a “home away from home” as our base instead of a hotel is definitely something that calms the nerves.  I highly recommend using something like VRBO or another vacation rental company. 



After the run we walked back to the house where I immediately jumped in the swmming pool still wearing my clothes and medal

Dusty and me with Minnie Mouse!

 So back to running – this week and next will be fairly busy – but I’m hoping to get a few more quality runs in before we leave. I do TRX twice a week and will keep that up, but I don’t think I will keep my physiotherapy appointment.  She is really giving my legs a lot of work when I see her, but I am quite sore afterwards and don’t want to risk it next week.  This past week I ran with the Want2Be’s on Saturday out in the North Saanich area. It was a COLD morning (I think about 2 degrees) and everyone’s feet turned into solid ice blocks.  We warmed up quickly though, running along beautiful farmland roads and along small winding roads along the waterfront.  It was quiet and all you could hear was our breath and slapping of running shoes on the ground, or the crunch of huge orange fallen leaves beneath our feet. The rolling hills throughout the whole run provided a good test for us since Seattle is supposed to be quite hilly too.  It was a beautiful 13km.  I skipped my Monday run to visit my NEW NEPHEW who I could just gobble up because he is so baby-licous, but had TRX on Tuesday, ran a ladder workout up Amity Road (a killer hill) and had TRX on Thursday. Tonight I am celebrating the end of a mentally tough week (read: emo) with girlfriends and sangria, and tomorrow I will be running with the Want2Be’s out in Oak Bay.  Sunday I might run again with my dog who apparently had decided his life’s mission is to eat every single roll of toilet paper he can get his mouth on, so I think he needs more exercise.  Woof.


Massive leaf from last Saturday's run



Confession: When I run I listen to terrible music...

Whoops, it would appear that I've forgotten already that I started a blog!  I should probably get into the habit of posting more regularly. 

As I was on my tempo run on Monday at lunchtime, listening to music and trying to keep my pace between 5:00-5:10 p/km, I realised that I listen to TERRIBLE music when I run.  Now a disclaimer, it's "terrible" music to me, but you might think that "Pound the Alarm" by Nicki Minaj is the best song ever written (it's not, by the way). Why do I listen to it then? Well, even though it's terrible, it's music that makes me want to dance while I run. See, I'm a closeted pop-music fan (although I guess I'm out of the closet now...?) and while I don't like that type of music all, there are some songs that even though I wouldn't be caught dead listening to it in my car, or play it in front of friends, if it's coming through my pink SkullCandy ink'd headphones I will boogy my butt away while pounding the pavement.  Anything basically that makes me do teeny tiny "jazz hands" while I run is good to me.  So, while I feel I'm fairly musically "open" and enjoy listening to many types of music, I do have certain categories for certain times.
My first love is metal. Not hair-metal (Poison, Van Halen) and not pop-metal (this is a tough one because "pop" can mean different things to different people but to ME, pop-metal are a lot of groups that became popular in the 90's and 2000's - Staind, Mudvayne, Papa Roach...). Metal also doesn't include acts like Nickleback by the way. That's technically classified as "crap".  Anyways, I love Deftones, Thursday, Refused, The Bronx, Mastodon, Dillinger Escape Plan, Alexisonfire, The Bled, and so many more amazing hardcore and metal bands. Oh and did I mention that my husband was part of an amazing hardcore/metal/progressive band called Kincaide ? They no longer play together in a band but they sure could make some amazing music when they did.

KINCAIDE

DEFTONES

(source)

I also like indie/alternative bands like Interpol, Death Cab for Cutie, Father John Misty, Band of Horses, Bon Iver, The National,  Brand New and many more.  On a flip side I love Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong (and whatever else is playing on the “big band” station on our TV).  I love hip hop/rap (I’m not going to get into the differences of it, I just like what I like) – Outkast, N.W.A, Hilltop hoods and Jay-Z & Kanye West.  Basically, the only “type” of music that doesn’t really entertain me is Opera, and country (but I do like some country, like old Johnny Cash or Dolly Parton – I’m just not a fan of Rascall Flats, Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood).  And then there’s pop...

At the moment when I run, I don’t always listen to music. I don’t plug in when I’m running with others like my dad on hill days or speed work, because we talk to each other (or huff and puff while we make our way up a hill) and I don’t listen to music when I do my long group runs because I find that kind of rude.  One of the joys about running with people is that you get to talk to them, listen, and form a bond. You can encourage each other and work through problems whether they are running related or not. When you’re plugged in to music, it may help you through the length of the run, but I feel that your time passes on the run much faster if you have chatted and sweated your way through with a bunch of people who really were listening to you (even if the only words you mutter are “not this f*!%king hill again!”).  So, I try to only run with my ipod when I'm running alone.  When I do run with my music, and I have my "run Jess run" play list playing, then my legs just fly. I get goosebumps and my arms want to start doing complicated dance moves  on their own to the music as I keep running along. Running to music really helps at that point where my legs won't go faster, or I just want to stop. Hearing an awesome line or notes of a song just give you that extra last push to make it through.  So without further ado, I will share with the Internet world my running play list (since I told you it was bad you can't judge me too harshly...right?):

Good Feeling - Flo Rida

Gangnam Style - Psy

Pound the Alarm - Nicki Minaj

Teeth - Lady Gaga

B.O.B. - Outkast

Starships - Nicki Minaj

Wicked - Ice Cube

N*gga's in Paris - Jay-Z & Kanye West

Turn Me On - David Guetta & Nicki Minaj

Gold Digger - Kanye West

List of Demands - Saul Williams 

Empathy - Bassnectar

Rocket Skates - Deftones

Mouth for War - Pantera

Gotta Have it - Jay-Z & Kanye West

Baby's on Fire - Die Antwoord

Vava Voom - Bassnectar

Bangarang - Skrillex

Civilization - Justice

What's my age again? - Blink-182

All I do is win - DJ Khaled

A New Level - Pantera

Black Tongue - Mastodon

Set Fire to the Face on Fire - The Blood Brothers

Korea - Deftones

I Fink U Freeky - Die Antwoord

Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix) - Metric

Do it or Die - Die Mannequin

Farewell, Mona Lisa - Dillinger Escape Plan

Harder Better Faster - Daft Punk

Bloody Cape - Deftones

Broadcasting - Comeback Kid

Bleed American - Jimmy Eat World

Midnight City - M83

Fuck tha Police - N.W.A

Promises (Skrillex Remix) - Nero

F*ck Authority - Pennywise

Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen

Rude Boy - Rhianna

Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites - Skrillex

**Cool down - at the moment I can't stop listening to "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" & "This is Sally Hatchet" by Father John Misty )

So as I said, some pretty terrible and some pretty good music to run to. This play list REALLY keeps me going and most of the time I can't even listen to the whole thing due to it being so long. But if I need a push, any one of the above songs at the moment can help me through the fatigue and pain.

What do YOU listen to when you run?

Don't be that runner...

This video is great. When I run I (usually) feel like I'm killing it like Shalane Flanagan or someone awesome like that.  However most of the time, I'm pretty sure I look like one of the guys in this video....
Who do YOU look like when you run?

This is what I tend to look like when I run (in 2008) and I'm being awkward (I'm on the left - the girl on the right is having the time of her life running with me, clearly!)

And my Dad is mainly just awkward AFTER he runs (or when he's sprinting but that's another post for another day...)

(Dad on the left, beaver, some lady, and fat guy in the back)

Wannabe

This morning was fantastic. The weather held off and we were able to complete a beautiful 21.6km run through downtown Victoria, Beacon Hill Park, and Oak Bay. We still have 5 weeks to go until Seattle so this will be one of the last longer runs we do before tapering.

Ross Bay Cemetery

So over the last 2 months or so, I have been joining my Dad's Saturday morning running group for their long runs. They are known as the "Want2be's" (link: http://want2bvic.weebly.com/ ) and they are a group of wonderfully talented and fun people. I am a "wannabe wannabe" - I think at the moment they are debating whether I can officially join their club - hopefully no severe hazing rituals are involved. Apparently I'm "too young" which I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not. Anyways, these guys and gals are great and I really love the getting to join them on their Saturday runs. They have oodles of experience and are very talented runners. They always have great routes and have great chats while running. Two perks for me: they are faster than I am so every run is a little bit of a push - making me faster and stronger (or so I like to believe) and we all get to poke fun at my Dad (in good nature of course) for various silly things like his strange adoration of pace bunnies....It's a win-win in my books.

 

This last photo is of the Want2be's having the mandatory post-run coffee this morning after our run

(Left to right - Karen, Cynthia, Bruce, Don, Mike and Sam)

Anyways, just wanted to say a big thank-you to the Want2Be's for including me!

Post run my calves were pretty sore. They have been feeling pretty tight since I started TRX again so I rolled around on my foam roller for a while which hurt so bad, but I know it does some good. After that I gathered up my water bottle (actually Dusty's water bottle but since he wasn't home I snagged it - mwahahaha) my magazines, and some bath salts and bath bombs that my mother-in-law gave me (thanks Linda!) and had a bath. Definitely worth it even though I detest baths because a) you're bathing in your own filth (so yes, I rinsed off before and afterwards) and b) because when I watched "What lies beneath" years ago there is a bathtub scene that scarred me for life. Which is why I only take baths when I'm desperate for muscle relief. No ice baths for me though; I'm a wimp.

 

(Yes that is an awesome turtle sticker on my bathtub wall.)

Afterwards I napped for about an hour (because I have no other things going on in life - my husband was chopping wood like a boss lumberjack all day) and then ate a delicious egg and spinach salad (veggie bacon mandatory) while watching "I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry".

A pretty successful Saturday to me!

Cypress and I are basically the same. We both like to snooze and cuddle, on repeat.

 

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Workout schedule

 

I'm number one! Actually, I'm usually last. But last night I was the only one at the track (other than my Dad) so I got the number one lane.

 

So since this is supposed to be a workout/lifestyle/running blog, I guess I should post my workouts to keep track of where I'm going with this. With no further ado, here is my current workout schedule:

Monday - easy run, 35-45 minutes

Tuesday - TRX class, 1hr

Wednesday - 1 hr of hills or track/speed work

Thursday - TRX class, 1 hr (and maybe a 1/2hr run)

Friday - rest day, unless I missed a workout earlier in the week

Saturday - long run (at the moment it's anywhere from 16-25km)

Sunday - rest day.

Last night at the track was good - I love running when the weather is cooler because I feel stronger for a longer amount of time. We decided to focus on nailing our race pace so we did 1km repeats at race pace, interspersed with 400m easy jog. After 5 of those we did 100m repeats. Neither of us is going to be the next Usain Bolt. I "think" I had read in Runner's World that if you do 100m sprints at the end of a workout it helps train you mentally and physically for the tough spurt you need at the end of a race. Mission accomplished - it was hard, but it felt good.

Before...

After...I don't know why it looks like I was chewing on my tongue...

Tonight I went to TRX class. It's wonderful and I semi-dread it and semi-love it. I did it consistently for about 6 months a year and a half ago but then dropped out because life and laziness got in the way. I started back up recently and while I thought I was literally doing to die a painful exercise induced death after session two, now I'm feeling good and strong. I like TRX because it is good for everyone - you can make it as easy or as hard as you can handle. For someone like me who doesn't drink milk because the carton is too heavy to lift (just kidding - I'm sensitive to dairy which is why I don't drink milk. But really, those milk jugs are heavy man!), TRX is good because I feel it helps strengthen and grow lean muscle instead of bulking up. I have no idea if that's actually the case, but that's what it does to me. Or what I like to think it does to me. Tonight however, I felt a bit of exercise guilt. It's a weird feeling to work your butt off for an hour (burning up to 800 calories - or so I have read), and feel like maaaaaybe you should crank out a half hour tempo run on the treadmill "just because". I didn't, because I was really looking forward to opening a bottle of wine and sitting on the couch, but it's a weird feeling to feel like you haven't done enough, when you know technically you have.

Calm before the sweat-storm - TRX. My beef with TRX? Because its at a local gym near where I live, they hold it on the mezzanine above the pool. The HEATED pool. Which I'd love if I was being a pool chick and hanging out in a bikini. However I'm trying to work my wobbly butt off in 90% humidity and it blows. Also, I love Neil Young. LOVE him. But playing it as gym music? Really?

 

Speaking of wine, not that I expect anyone to read or follow this blog of mine, but I should add a disclaimer that I am not, by any means, a super health-nut guru who claims to know all there is about running, working out, health, food, etc etc etc. Basically, I want to document my growth, changes, failures, goals and hopefully success' on here. I will also document silly things like my husband and dogs, friends and food and many other random things. I am not claiming to be super super healthy. I love wine. LOVE it. I love nice European cheese. I love chocolate. I love beer (that one took a while but I actually do have a taste for it now). I also love the "good for you" stuff like broccoli and egg whites and spinach, but I can promise you I will be posting pictures and writing posts while drinking wine and eating cheese and calling it "dinner". Rest assured the next day I will go back to egg whites and protein powder, but to be honest, it's all about balance. And I honestly don't like cooking that much so it's a kind of fend-for-yourself situation in my kitchen (poor Dusty).

And so I don't forget, some things I'm going to have to post about soon are: running goals, running music, favorite healthy living/exercise/lifestyle blogs I read.

Xoxo

 

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A new start

Well, I've decided to write a blog. I've thought about doing this two times before, but realized after I had made each one, that I didn't really have anything to really WRITE about. Then all of a sudden, one evening after a long sweaty track workout, I thought "hey, why don't I actually write these workouts down? And write down how I'm feeling? And my goals? And? And? And?". Anyways, I figured since I love reading so many healthy living blogs (as well as tonnes of other lifestyle blogs) I may as well start my own. Even if no one else ever reads this, at least I can track my progress and someday look back at it and see how I've grown and changed.

A little bit about me: I'm 27, married to a wonderful man called Dusty, I live in Sidney, British Columbia Canada, I have two crazy black dogs who are my fur babies and I love more than anything and finally, I love to run, I love it, LOVE it. Have I mentioned that I love it? I ran in high school, but not super super seriously since competition makes me anxious. I mainly focused on horse riding and still ride now. Around 6 years ago, after consistently running only once in a while, my dad asked me to run a local race called the Times Colonist 10km. He started running when I was in grade 10 or 11 and had fallen in love with it. He was always so stoked to go on a run, join new clinics, meet new people and of course get new gear (oh the gear!). So I agreed - and slowly started to love it. I started with running 10 & 1's (run 10 minutes, walk 1) and completed that first race in an hour doing that method. I was hooked. While picking up our race package, I saw a sign up booth for the Royal Victoria Marathon & Half Marathon (now known as the Goodlife Fitness Marathon). I said to my Dad "hey! I should sign up for this!" His response was a cross between a scoff and a snort - clearly he thought that was far-fetched. So I said that if I ran the half marathon (which was only 6 months away), he would have to get a tattoo. Now, a note about my Dad - even though I am quite covered in tattoos, he has none, and is pretty opposed to them. The whole "your body is a temple" thing etc etc etc. Well apparently he thought this idea of me running was SO ludicrous that he said "deal!". So of course I had to do it. Over that spring and summer I ran. I ran hard. I learned a lot - not all good, not all bad. I got injured. I met new people (some good, some bad), I pushed myself in ways I hadn't in a long time, and I know I pushed myself harder than ever before when I actually ran that race (1:58:54). Oh yeah, he had to get a tattoo :) So, I was "bitten", as they say, and I haven't stopped since. I have taken breaks - due to injury, due to life getting in the way, and due to burnout. Now though, I want to push myself in new goals (a marathon, beating my best times) and I want to be faster and stronger than ever before.

Well, that's quite the intro - I guess I will kind of do both "history" and "currently" style posts - I will send out my questions and musings to the great wide world of bloggers, and maybe someday someone will comment or follow me back! In the meantime, I'll just ramble along and post goofy pictures.

 

This is my Dad and I in Canberra, Australia (where I was born and grew up). We ran around Lake Burley Griffin on the most amazing winter day, September 2012.

Me!

 

Chocolate is my favorite post-run treat (as well as soy chai lattes)

These two furry things are my babies. Frank (top) and Cypress

 

 

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