Tapering- A week before a marathon of no exercise, excluding 1-2 low mileage, slow, days. Hence, the runner feels like they're gaining weight, eating too much, loosing their "fit" level, and overall is being mentally drained. IT SUCKS! (Stephanie)
Water- is a ubiquitous chemical substance, composed of hydrogen and oxygen, that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life (Wikepedia)
Water- Gross tasting, stomach bloating, "necessary" substance that "needs" to be consumed the week before a race. AKA... NASTY! (Stephanie)
I have an extreme distaste for both tapering and water...
You: REALLY? You HATE water??
Me: Yes, I'm serious I hate the taste of water. It's disgusting...
You: But it doesn't taste like anything
Me: Exactly... GROSS
You: But... you NEED water to run
Me: Yes, but unlike you (probably) my body doesn't like to sweat and retains the water in my skin. My face, hands, arms, & feet blow up if I have too much water-- And by "too much" I mean the normal amount people consume during a marathon. Sigh... I'm broken!
You: But... NOBODY hates water
Me: I never claimed to be normal!!!
Ok so now that we have that cleared up... I have The San Francisco Marathon this week so it's tapering week!!! Which means I only get to run like twice and at that only for 3 slow miles. I'll fill the rest of my week with stretching during the time I normally work out and LOTS of my roller to break up any leftover muscle cramps and get any remaining lactic acid out.
I'll be on the pacing team for SF so my race plan is obvious... be no more than 2 minutes in front of 3:50! I'm really excited to pace people and help them to get their time. I'm hoping the weather won't be too hot as the course is already fairly hilly! We'll see though. I'll post my race RUNdown as we get closer to the end of the week! Wish me luck on keeping my cool over the week and not getting completely strung out. I'll do my best to avoid any sort of scale and focus on carbo-loading!Happy Running,
Stephanie
