Believe in the Taper

Monday kicked off taper week and my running has really slowed down in preperation for Boston, which always has the side effect of making me feel lazy, tired, and cranky.  It seems like this happens to everyone, but it never will stop me from tapering.  I really believe that progressively backing off your miles and intensity over the last three weeks will help start the race rested and fresh, and you will have the endurance to finish strong!

This is what my week has looked like so far:

Monday: 5 miles easy
Tuesday: 4 miles easy
Wednesday: Workout totaling 6 miles 1.5 WU, 3x1200 with 400 meter rest.  These were faster paced (around 6:40) but did not feel bad because there were only 3 of them.  Ran them on the road in : 4:59, 4:57, 4:54.  Felt great to run fast in my marathon flats.
Thursday: 3 miles easy

For the rest of the week:
Friday: 3 miles easy (on grass) with some striders after to make sure I don't lose my turnover
Saturday: Complete rest
Sunday: Easy 2 miles, a few striders
Monday: MARATHON!

For the last two weeks, I have stopped lifting but continued with ab work.  I have felt a few aches and pains in my legs, which always happens when I taper.  I have been making more of an effort to run on grass and stretch and ice.

Starting today, I will be eating pasta or other high-carb foods for dinner.  I feel most prepared for a race when I each so much pasta I vow to never eat it again.

 

Have been studying the course and telling myself those uphills are just little speedbumps!

The weather forecast has been very scatteered for Monday.  At one point, Monday was predicted to reach 80 degrees.  Not nice marathon weather.  I run well in brisk weather, so I am hoping for a colder day.  Right now, Monday has a low of 51, high of 70, a 30% chance of rain, and scattered thunderstorms.  I'm thinking of wearing a sports bra top instead of the usual tanktop.  The only thing I hate about that is you have to awkwardly pin your number to your shorts!

Click below to track anyone running the Boston Marathon, my bib number is 7149 if you would like to track me!
Boston Marathon Runner Tracking


Besides tapering and obsessing over the weather in Boston, I have been out and about Augusta.  Have been doing some fun outings, as well as applying for and interviewing for different jobs.  Tuesday night, Jordan and I took the dogs to my favorite park to run at.  There is a big dog park there as well.  Bruno was ridiculous and barked at everyone at first, then finally calmed down.  He was very friendly to all the kids who came to pet him.  Penny made me look like a fool.  We were walking together so nicely on the trail when she decided to start her laying-down-in-the-middle-of-the-walk routine.   She did this in front of a huge crowd watching peewee football practice and they were laughing hysterically when I had to carry her on the rest of our 'walk.'

the two most intimidating dogs at the park

Have any magic tapering tricks for me???

Augusta, Georgia

We have been in Georgia since last Thursday and let me tell you I have been going nuts not having access to the interent in our house.  I have been totally fine not having TV for the past couple days but I really missed talking/emailing people/reading blogs/writing blogs for the past week.  We won't have internet until Friday, but we are at Panera so I have a little internet time- yay!!!

We left from Pittsburgh last Thursday at 4:05 am.  Jordan, Penny, Bruno and I were in his car, his dad drove our moving truck, and my parents drove my car down.  We originally decided that both dogs would sit buckled into their harnesses in the back seat for the 10-11 hour car ride.  They had other ideas.
For the first hour, they whined and cried non-stop.  I felt bad because they seemed very nervous - understandable.  So then this happened the rest of the trip:

Jordan has a two-door car AND there was luggage at my feet.  Bruno was buckled into the same seatbelt as me, and Penny was buckled into the seatbelt next to me.  Of course, she wanted to sit on me, too.  I was pretty squished, but obviously not too uncomfortable:

nap time

We got to Georgia at 3pm last Thursday and immediately went into our house.  I. LOVE. OUR. HOUSE.  The neighborhood we are renting our house in is gorgeous.  I feel like I am living on Wisteria Lane, and running around the hood this morning I actually did see a Wisteria Court.  It is the perfect neighborhood to live in, because I absolutely LOVE running down residential streets.  I like to run by houses and see kids playing on the streets, people walking dogs, families grilling, and ladies gardening (every woman I saw out this morning was gardening!).  The developments all connect with each other and I am pretty sure I could run 15 miles through the different plans and not run the same street once.  This morning, I ran the route to one of the pools I might join!  It is such an novel idea to me to be able to walk/run/bike somewhere you want to go.

View from our front door, we are up on the hill a bit which makes for a nice view!

Our parents really helped us move in over the weekend and we are now almost all unpacked.  Jordan started work Monday and I started my job as a full-time dog mom/housewife/decorator until I find a job.  It has kept me very busy, I unpacked every room, dusted, mopped, vacuumed, cooked, shopped, ironed, decorated, and steam cleaned every room on the first floor so far.  Oh yeah, and cleaned up Bruno's pee.  He thinks it is his job to 'mark' every room and even though I let them out every hour, he still finds the need to pee a little squirt in each room.  So that takes up about 2 hours of my day, every day.

I have LOTS more I want to write about, especially all the decorations I have been putting up in our new home, and (oh yeah) Boston.  I keep forgetting about Boston since I just moved across the country, but it is coming up in 12 days.  I also am job searching right now, so hopefully something great will turn up in the next couple of weeks.  At my last job, I made a lot of fun friends and I really miss talking to people during the day (Besides Penny and Bruno).

In addition, we are in THE BUSIEST time of year in Augusta, Georgia..... Master's Week!  Augusta is not a very large city but it is absolutely crazy right now with all the golf pros and fans in town.  Fortunately, we live in EVANS, Georgia which is about 20 minutes from the golf course.  It is not as crowded in the suburbs, but a lot of our  neighbors are renting out their homes for visitors this week.  I feel strangely proud to live here when I see the Master's commercials on TV now because I LIVE HERE!

Augusta  National

I love Pittsburgh, but boy is it nice to live somewhere where it is always sunny (most of the time!) and we can eat outside every day.  It's like I am on a permanent vacation.

Time to head home, but so happy I got to blog and should be fully connected Friday!  Expect lots of pictures!