Last week, the first week of my taper, I ran 21 on Sunday (as I wrote about), then did 4 on Thursday, and 12 this past Sunday. I really didn't run much. Between concern over my knee and all of the energy I was burning on the other stuff going on in my life I just didn't feel like it. That 21 miler really made me think "Wait... why am I doing this?? Running isn't even fun, wtf?" So I gave myself a break.
The 12 this Sunday was pretty good--I ran it with Lisa and we did about an 11:03 pace--not too crazy, it was comfortable. However, both of my hips started hurting quite a lot, and my knee was twinging a bit. I don't like that my hips hurt after only 12 miles. This cannot be good.
I had been using a rolling pin with a towel wrapped around it as kind of a ghetto foam roller on my IT bands, but I finally got an actual foam roller, and I've been trying to use it at least twice a day. It's kind of strange--sometimes when I do it, it really hurts and then I feel really quite good afterward. Other times I do it and I feel as if I am bruised afterward, and that's kind of where I am right now. I used it this morning, and now that I'm sitting here I feel as if I have lumps or bruises on both of my hips. In all likelihood I probably just didn't work out the knots well enough or something. It has to be something going on inside because the "bruised" feeling spots are in exactly the same spots on both hips.
If I have a productive enough afternoon I'm going to head out for 4 miles or so this evening. The crappy thing is... NOW I HAVE A COLD. Lucky me, a taper cold. And it's less than 2 weeks until the race. I've been taking Airborne, Cold-Eez, and Emergen-C, along with immune-boosting tea, and I could feel a lot worse than I do right now. All things considered I don't feel that badly, at least at this exact moment. But I'm concerned because the usual pattern for me is that a head cold turns into a chest cold. Last fall/winter I had walking pneumonia for 3 months because I couldn't get the chest cold to go away. I'm terrified this is going to turn into a chest cold just in time for the marathon. Please send all hopes/prayers/positive energy/advice/anything you've got toward me getting over this nasty bug without it turning into a chest cold. I don't know what else I can do to prevent that from happening, because it ALWAYS happens. It's like it's inevitable. I probably wore myself down too much with anxiety and not eating properly so this is my own fault. Grahhh.
Last week not running wasn't really bothering me but this week I'm starting to feel a bit stir-crazy. I want to run and I want to run fast and I want to run now. I guess this is what a taper feels like.
Some things I want to write about once I have time (must get some other work done today..)
- my garmin and its accuracy (or possible lack thereof)
- some stuff I read in the Higdon book about the mental side of marathoning
- a race belt (should I get one? I was considering a spibelt or an ifitness belt so I can pin my race number to it, carry gels, and shed layers easily off my top half without worrying about the race number. Both seem to get good reviews... the ifitness seems to be less widely used but perhaps more positively reviewed? No clue. But if I'm going to get one I need to order it like... yesterday. I might like this one: http://www.ifitnessinc.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=39 or perhaps this one: http://www.ifitnessinc.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=54 or maybe this one: http://www.ifitnessinc.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=111)
- some stuff I learned about pacing a marathon and vo2max (and how badly mine sucks..heh)
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