Week in review Feb. 13-19: I tapered a bit too hard

Less running, but still mostly running.

Last week was definitely easy on the running. On Tuesday, instead of my usual 5-6 on the treadmill, it was nice enough that my husband and I went for a very easy run outside. It was a bit windier than anticipated, so we called it at 3. It was getting late, anyway, and we were hungry.

I kept up with my “Wednesday weights” tradition, and after work Thursday I went to a runner’s clinic instead of doing my usual speedy run. I didn’t know what to expect, but it ended up being mostly lecture with a few static exercises. It was informative and helpful, but I didn’t get in any miles that day.

Saturday we were a bit crunched for time with a commitment in the afternoon and evening, and I wanted to cut down on my back-to-back long runs anyway, so I called it at 6.75 miles. The last two Saturdays have been 10 and 11 miles, so this was a decent decrease. It got up to HIGH 60s!!!!!!!!!!!!! so I enjoyed the time outside. In fact, I was way too overdressed and sweated through all my clothes.

Sunday was another gorgeous day in the mid-60s, and my husband decided he wanted to do our usual 7-mile route. (I wisened up and wore a t-shirt and capris and was perfectly fine the entire time.) I did a speedy 2 after I dropped him off for 9 total – a far cry from the 15 and 16.5 I did the previous two Sundays.

So, while I ran 37 miles two weeks ago and 37.5 last week, I hit “only” 18.75 miles this past week, which I just realized is exactly half of last week. I didn’t mean to taper quite that hard; I was shooting for 25-ish. But, eh, I needed the rest, so I’m not really sad. Plus, I can’t lie – it was wonderful having to dedicate 2-ish hours to running on a Sunday rather than closer to 4-ish.

I was finished with all of my food prep by 9:30 p.m. last night (Sunday) and didn’t know what to do with myself, so I did a bit of yoga and some glute exercises from my running clinic. I can’t even remember the last time I did any pre-hab. I have the same problem with pre-hab as I do with my heavy/body weights routine: I come up with this elaborate routine that takes way too long, get frustrated that it takes too long, and never do it. I have much better success when I can pare things down to 10-, 20-, 30-minute chunks that I can fit in whenever. This happened to me with yoga, too; I never did my hour-long class downloads, so I never did anything, until I started doing 15 or 20 minutes at a time.

Strangely, I never have a problem “fitting in” running… that always seems to find its place in my schedule.

Anyway, last week by the numbers was:

Run: Three times, all on the road in gorgeous weather, for 18.75 miles in about 3 hours, 22 minutes. 10 of these were slower miles with my husband, but I don’t mind because I kind of like him.

Weights: One video for about 1 hour, 5 minutes.

Yoga: Twice, both on my own, for about 45 minutes total.

Pre-hab: I’m totally counting the 10 minutes of glute exercises I did last night because I say so.

Total: 7 sessions in about 5 hours, 22 minutes. It’s still almost an hour almost every day so whatever. Plus, that includes a very easy yoga-only day and what was essentially two rest days.

I have a normal first half of the week and we catch a morning flight Thursday to head down to Florida for my big races. Of course, every little twinge and sore muscle is terrifying me right now. I am SO excited to see my sister and hang out in Florida but SO stressed already with all the stuff I have to do beforehand, and of course SO nervous for race weekend itself. EEEK! I just have to prioritize. If the fridge doesn’t get scrubbed out before we leave it’s not the end of the world.