MCM Week 17: Taper Tantrums

There was so much uncertainty going into this week. Will I fit in a long run before the Nor’easter? Will the storm force us to evacuate our little shore town? Will this new pain in my foot go away? Will the marathon even happen this year? Will my body break as soon as my next birthday from old age? The next two weeks were part of my marathon taper, and it was a mental ride I both expected and completely forgot about since the last time I went through a marathon training cycle.

Here's the plan breakout for Week 17:

• Sunday – 13 miles Long

• Monday – 4 miles Easy

• Tuesday – 6 miles Easy

• Wednesday – 10.5 miles Strength: 1.5 miles WU, 6 x 1 mile @ MP-10 w/ 400m jog, 1.5 mile cooldown

• Thursday – Crosstrain

• Friday – 4 miles Easy

• Saturday – 6 miles Easy

 What actually happened:

• Sunday – 4 miles Easy (Highlands)

• Monday – Rest (Nor’easter and foot pain)

• Tuesday – 5 miles Easy (Bedminster)

• Wednesday – Lifting

• Thursday – 10.5 miles Easy (HHT)

• Friday – 6.76 miles Easy (Battery Loop)

• Saturday – 6 miles Easy (Battery Loop)

My right foot started hurting a bit randomly the night before, so between the pain and the impending Nor’easter heading our way, running 13 miles at tempo this Sunday wasn’t going to happen. I felt my weather migraine coming on and I was nervous about the storm, so I ran 4 miles around town before the rain to get my jitters out. I lacked motivation and energy, so it was a perfect day for bad weather.

My foot pain persisted and now my back hurt on Monday from sitting around during the storm, so it was a forced rest day for me. The storm was still bad, so I worked from home.

Although the previous week of training was the toughest in terms of volume, the final two weeks in a marathon training block are the toughest on the mind. Commonly known as “Taper Tantrums”, a marathoner can expect to feel antsy, like they’re not doing enough, anxious about the weather, achy from their muscles recovering, hungry from trying to adjust food intake, and restless. Self-doubt is common, the urge to completely change strategy is prominent, and even the tiniest muscle strain is exacerbated because you have all this extra time to think about it since you aren’t training as long each day. I was feeling all of these things (physically and mentally) plus the doom and gloom over whether the government shutdown would affect my race taking place in the nation’s capital.

I was back in the office on Tuesday and ran 5 miles at an easy pace. On par with every Tuesday this summer, there was extra traffic that caused me to have to cut my run short. I also had a surprisingly busy work day and picked up 2 new clients.

An accurate representation of how I feel during my marathon taper; hungry for carbs and feeling like death!

I had a great strength training session on Wednesday, and as tempted as I was to pile on more 45-lb plates on the barbell, I had to remind myself to wait 2 more weeks to go heavy again. I could not risk injury during this precious time before the marathon. The downside to not working out hard was that I felt enough anxiety on the short drive between the gym and my office that I needed to take a pill. The mental load of the work day exhausted me.

I felt exhausted on Thursday morning and recall having some very weird dreams, so I was surprised I was even able to make up the 10.5 mile run that I was supposed to do the previous day. I was determined to run at least the Rx minimum that I missed because it was my birthday and wanted to be able to tell myself how impressive it is to be able to continue running double digits at age 37. I know plenty of people my age that never ran a 5k, and I’m about to run my THIRD marathon in my late 30s. Thankfully it was an easy WFH day, so I tried to rest my mind after the run, but I really had trouble focusing. The Marine Corps Marathon Organization had finally notified all participants that the race was ON, so it was a nice little birthday gift to hear that I will be able to participate in the event I prepared for all summer. We went out to dinner for a delicious Italian meal to celebrate my old age, but the anxiety decided to creep in after I ate. I was so frustrated that my body kept doing this to me and hoped that it wouldn’t mess up my race in 10 days’ time. The minor attack exhausted me further and I couldn’t wait to go to sleep.

I knew I needed about 6 miles on Friday, and I purposely ran the hilly Battery Loop in Hartshorne to hone my strategy for the hills early on in the Marine Corps course. The people in the Facebook comment section kept going on and on about the hills in the beginning, but when I looked at an elevation chart comparison between MCM and NYCM, New York is the tougher incline. I knew I would have no problem with it, but I still wanted to feel prepared.

I did the same loop on Saturday and stopped right before the bagel shop so I could walk the rest of the way home with my breakfast in hand. It was weird not having Beach Yoga afterward, so we spent the rest of the day walking around Asbury Park. It was beautiful outside, and I wished we thought to bring our surfboard to catch the perfect waves that afternoon.

During taper, you’re supposed to run less, but I ran almost 10 miles less than planned. Some of it was due to a storm that I could not control, some of it was because my body was begging me to rest, and it’s better to be undertrained than overtrained before a marathon. It was a mental rollercoaster this week between the bad weather, aging another year, and finding out I’ll have to run 26.2 miles after all in a few days.