Sentence Per Picture & Taper Side Effects

JUST TWO MORE DAYS!!!

Last real run before the race (I’ll do one more really short one on the treadmill Friday because I did that before St. George last year and it was perfect).

Hot chocolate is my favorite way to carb-load and hydrate all at once… PS I need to build up my cold weather tolerance because right now a 40 degree run is KILLING ME.

Thanks for sending this to me Eleanor!

When Skye see’s a bird she starts squealing and clenches her fists so tight from all of the excitement.

We hit up the mall because she was bored of all of my recovering at home;)

We love pretzel bites around here…

The second part of my lunch was this pan of goodness—>  I roasted Brussel sprouts, asparagus, zucchini, red potatoes and tomatoes (I put those in with everything for the last 10 minutes) with olive oil and garlic salt.

We topped it with a bunch of fresh mozarella cheese and it was heaven.

We volunteered at Brooke and Knox’s Chess Club and it was so fun to see their little brains work!

My niece and nephew both had huge PRs at their cross-country meet yesterday… I am obsessed with watching them run.

The weather was absolutely perfect for them.

My nephew was stylish….

I’ve been thinking a lot about this short taper that we have been doing for this race and I really think it is perfect for where we are at with our training.  Our last big workout was 10 days before the race (10 x 1 mile fast for a total of 20 miles) and I think that is just the amount of taper we will need to peak on Saturday.  As long as we really take our recovery/sleep seriously (which I am:), I think it is just what we needed.

Through my coach’s training the last 5ish months I have been able to bounce back from hard workouts/races faster than ever (we ran to the top of Mt Timpanogos 2 days after my PR half-marathon!!) so I think any more rest would have left us feeling sluggish.  PS this is not for all training cycles, just the way that our coach has prepared us!

I’m very thankful that we only knew our workouts a day or two in advance through this training cycle because seeing what he was going to have us do over the months would have had me hiding under my bed.

There have definitely been a few side effects from this taper even though it has been shorter than normal:

*If I am in the same room as someone that is sick with a cold, I INSTANTLY feel sick haha.  It’s all in my brain because germs can’t possibly spread that quickly but I get SO NERVOUS about getting sick leading up to a race.   This has caused me to wash my hands 12 times an hour.

*I have had so much extra energy yesterday and the day before that I have been deep cleaning areas in our house for the first time since we moved here!  My coach okayed cleaning during the taper ha because he guessed we would all be going crazy with the big drop in mileage.

*I have officially reviewed every single workout/race that I have done since May 1st.  I pretty much have them memorized at this point because I want to pull a few of them out in my head during the race when the pain sets in to remind myself I can do hard things.

*I can pretty much hear Deena Kastor’s voice in my head because of how many podcasts I have listened to this week with her as a guest.

*During this taper I have been thinking a lot about COMMITTING to my goal.  Not just hoping that it will magically all come together but making a commitment to myself to give all that I have on the course on Saturday.  I will have a lot of decisions to make over the course of 26.2 miles and I can’t wait to keep choosing the harder right rather than the easier wrong!

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What are a few of your taper side effects that you experience leading up to a big race?

Favorite game/board game to play?  Anyone else like to play chess?

Favorite veggies to roast and what seasonings do you love to put on them?

Do you run the day before a race or do you take it off?

-Today I am going to take the least amount of steps as possible (which is tricky with kids ha) and then tomorrow do a very short run and a bit of walking at the expo and that’s it:)