Sunday's 16 miler was my last long run before the Stone Mill 50 miler, which means it's time to taper. I'm going to put the same care and consideration into that that I have applied to my training plan all along. Aka I'll just wing it. That approach hasn't really worked for me, and I don't plan to do it again, but I could definitely squeeze a whole other post out on that topic so we'll move on for now.
Tapering is supposed to be a period of reduced mileage leading up to the race to allow your legs to rest up. I think most training plans use some sort of scientific formula to figure it out. I ran 55 miles last week, and when Kara asked me on gchat how many I was aiming for this week, I threw out "uh, 45-50?" and that seemed good. I'm no mathematical genius, but I can choose a random number that is less than another number.
My long run this week will be ten miles, which is coincidentally the same number of miles I ran today! I crunched some numbers, and figured out that meant I need to run 35 miles Mon-Fri, with a possible addition of 5 on Sunday. That will be entirely based on my Saturday night activities.
Monday: 7 miles (9:12 pace)
Tuesday: 6.5 miles (we won't speak of the pace)
Wednesday am: 2 miles outdoors, 3 miles treadmill (make of that what you will, let's just say things didn't go according to plan)
Wednesday pm: the best thing that could ever happen to an adult happened - my grad class was canceled. It was 65 degrees out. Obviously that meant I needed to squeeze in another 5 miles.
As if that wasn't enough to make my day, I also got to FaceTime with my sister and my nephew, and meet my BFF Carolyn for dinner at Panera.
We also got to go on a field trip today to an art gallery. I would have taken pictures, but I was really busy marveling at the fact that the docents actually made it really interesting for a bunch of 9 year olds, and that said children were mature enough to be in a museum with art that included the unclothed human form without hysterically laughing (like, let's face it, most adults I know). Use your imagination and picture a bunch of paintings, and that's pretty much what it looked like.
My day wasn't perfect, however. First of all, the bus driver took us to the wrong art museum and we missed like half an hour of our tour. It was cool though, at least he was blasting Rihanna's S&M during the ride.
Then I made a terrible mistake at Panera. I was eyeing the M&M cookies in line, but figured I'd get one later. By the time we were done.....dun dun dun.....there was only oatmeal raisin left. It gets worse.
They were also out of pumpkin spice lattes.
I decided to hope against hope that the Target next door still had some discounted Halloween candy.
As soon as I walked in, I berated myself. "It's been an entire week since Halloween, there's no way they'll have anything left! This is a fool's mission!"
But I persisted, and went all the way to the back of the store. And thank goodness I did, because I had underestimated my ability to love a food that everyone else on earth thinks is gross. I scored a giant bag of these babies, 70% off.
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| It hurts that they are individually wrapped. I am sorry, Earth. |
After enjoying one or two or seven little bags, it's time to wrap up this post and crawl into bed with this.
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| I waited so long! |
I heard mixed reviews, but once again, I love what others hate (Game of Thrones book 4, taper, peeps) and I've enjoyed it so far.
Side note - would anyone be interested in petitioning authors to only use made up names in awesome books? You know, in the manner of Game of Thrones and Hunger Games? I get pretty into these characters and it messes with my head. My coworker has the same name as one of the Divergent bad guys (no spoilers!). On the rare occasions I use this person's first name (it's elementary school, everyone is Mr. or Ms.), it throws me for a loop and I have to remind myself that this person is normal and I like them and they will not attack me. I've yet to encounter this problem with any real life Joffreys or Catos.
Anyone else struggle with the line between real life and fiction, or am I just a freak?
What was your last terrible mistake in life?
My life is pretty much fiction so I'm all good there! The last big mistake I made? Hmmm not reading Divergent???
ReplyDeletePeep lovers unite.
ReplyDeleteAGH! I'm curious to see what you think of Allegiant! Definitely mixed for me, but it was good-- but I want to hear what you think of the ending!
ReplyDeleteI love Peeps too, especially if they are a little crunchy on the outside. I loved every game of thrones book and wish he would get the next one out, and if I ever run into a Joffrey I am afraid I will want to hit him. or a Cersei
ReplyDeleteI was at CVS yesterday and they have cherry cordial m&ms. Ew? Have you had these? Do you like them?
ReplyDeleteLast big mistake? I made and ate a ton of Velveeta/Rotel dip while watching the football game last weekend. That stuff is DELICIOUS but it makes me feel so gross after. You'd think I'd learn...but I need to make it at least once a year to remind myself.
I can't wait til we can talk about Allegiant!!!
ReplyDeleteWhenever Jeff is annoying me, I tell him to stop being such a Joffrey. We should write a couple's therapy book.
ReplyDeleteI like taper, except for the part that makes me doubt every ounce of my training and aptitude as a runner.
Those pretzels looked gross. I eyed them on Target and even on clearance I was like "Nope!"
hahaha to "peep lovers unite". I couldn't think of anything that I love that others hate until this one popped into my head and is a prime example: Clay Aiken.
ReplyDeleteI love peeps and taper, too, so maybe there's hope for me for Allegiant. I'm only a few chapters in so far and I'm having a hard time getting into it. The first two books sucked me in right from the start.
ReplyDeleteHahaha. I use a 75% peak two weeks out, 50% one week out approach to tapering. You aren't too far from that. Sounds good to me! :)
ReplyDeleteMy last first-world-big-mistake was getting so wrapped up in work and blogging that it got to 9 PM, and my plans to treat myself to ramen for dinner had to be cancelled. I will have to rectify this situation tomorrow!