The Taper
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
As is my usual Tuesday routine, I just checked my schedule for the week and I'm disturbed. Not by the intensity of this week's training, but by its non-intensity.
I know I have a marathon to run this coming Sunday, and I want to do well. My body has mostly held up through the extra running training I added to my Ironman program, and my goal is a sub-4:00 race. But despite knowing all that, I'm having a hard time with the taper.
A "normal" week's schedule looks like this: Monday: Off Tuesday: Swim - Masters, Bike - 1 hour, Run - Intervals (4x100m; 1k, 2k, 1k, 1k; etc) Wednesday: Swim - 30 min, Bike - 2 hours Thursday: Swim - Masters, Bike - 30 min, Run - 5-10 miles at planned marathon pace + 45 sec. Friday: Bike - 1 hour easy Saturday: Long run (15-20 miles) Sunday: Bike 4-5 hours, Run - 20 minutes
This weeks schedule looks like this: Monday: Make up Saturday's long run (6-8 miles) Tuesday: Run - 6x400 with 400m rest intervals Wednesday: Swim - 40 min, Bike - 2 hours (hill intervals on course) Thursday: Run - 3 miles at PMP pace Friday: Swim - 40 min, Bike - 1.5 hours easy Saturday: Off Sunday: Marathon
I'm not doing any of the running this week (except for the long-run makeup session yesterday) to try and head off an aggravated ankle I've been nursing for a while. And I feel as thought I should be enjoying the tapering, but really, it just feels odd. I feel like I should have been out having a hard core night last night, and tonight, and tomorrow night. And then I start feeling guilty -- that I'm not doing enough...not working hard enough. I keep telling myself that it's better to be 10 percent under-trained than one percent over-trained, but I'm not listening very well. I only have a little over three months left to train -- only 12 or 13 more long bike sessions -- and then it's go time. Tapering makes me nervous.
The other issue is that I'm sort of an all-or-nothing person. Or, put another way, an Erin in motion tends to stay in motion; an Erin with not as much to do wants to do absolutely nothing. I haven't had any free time in my evenings for oh-so-long, and when I get even a little, I want to do completely un-Ironman-related things like grocery shop, clean my house, work with my horse, and cook dinner. Maybe even catch a movie...while not on my bike trainer...in an actual theater.
And so, I think the lesson for this week is that one of the hardest things about your first Ironman (or marathon, or other big undertaking) is not necessarily the race. It's not necessarily the hours of training you have to put in (ummm, usually). The hardest thing is how neurotic it makes you. Am I training too much? Too little? Eating too much? Not eating enough? How does my training program compare to other people's programs? And on and on and on, ad nauseum.
I know those close to me have had to listen to me talk about this over and over again -- dissecting every little part of my training. And I just want to say that it's not because I'm into navel-gazing. It's because this is a huge undertaking, with a lot of moving parts to manage (training, equipment maintenance, nutrition...or lack thereof, etc), and quite simply, it makes me nervous ... even neurotic.
So bear with me. It'll get better. I promise.
Posted by Erin 1:31 PM
PS
Just read an article about a girl that did a marathon with a torn ACL... Inspired me to turn in 5 miles in under 34 minutes. Going for 13 this weekend. Don't count me out yet!!