Monday, July 12, 2010

Frankie Says Relax!....and to taper

It's t-minus 4.5 days until my 24 hour race and I am officially in taper mode. The more and more I think about the race, the more my stomach does flips. I had a successful 16 miler yesterday and now I just have to relax. Weather permitting, I'll get in 7.25 miles tomorrow and around 4 miles on Wednesday. After that, it's resting Thursday and Friday. Friday, my family and I will be driving up to Philly, checking into the hotel, picking up my race packet, enjoying a $15 3-couse meal at Marathon Grill, then sleeeeeeeep. Don't worry, I won't eat too much. It'll just be a salad, lasagne, and some chocolate mousse. That'll be carby and not too filling (hopefully).

I get a lot of flack from non-runners who say my running is not good for me. They say I'll end up in a wheelchair and I'm being stupid with how I treat my body. I really hate this. I mean, REALLY hate this. If people know me, I am someone who researches the hell out of things. I have researched the heck out of what I am doing and have purposefully chosen to be more conservative with my training (at least in comparison to the people who run 80-100 miles a week). When I hurt, I stop and relax. When it's too hot, I slow down and drink more. Overall, I'm pretty cautious as I train for this ultra. When people harass me about my running, I always tell them I could be doing drugs instead, which would be 10x worse. In order to commemorate my sentiments, my awesome mother/sherpa had a shirt made for me. There I am, pre-16 miler, in my spiffy new shirt. It also feels awesome to run in! Most people won't get it, but those who get it so far have really found it hilarious. My mother is so awesome for having not only thought to make this shirt, but to have actually purchased it for me for my race. I love it so much!
Alright, it's bed time for me. I may or may not update before my race, but if not, let's hope the race goes well!

2 comments:

  1. relax relax relax (easy for me to say). start out slow and taper off :-) if you start having issues in the beginning and get down on yourself, remember that these races reward the patient. take it ridiculously easy. don't bother looking at pace, time or elapsed miles. run and laugh and eat, that is your job. into the night, then you should think about digging in, what's possible, where you are on the leader board etc. you'll be awesome!!

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  2. I didn't run my first 100-miler until age 57.
    Age 59 for my wife (she of the artificial hip) and she led me across Spain on foot (el camino de Santiago)--she keeps going, I keep going.
    We quit counting, just kept going.

    You keep going--is all good. Run gently out there.

    John M.

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