Tapered Out
I'm about to attempt my first marathon in just a little over 2 weeks, and I am officially tapering.
I've written about tapering before, as I was approaching my first ever half marathon (Tip Tapering Away). Back then, I was a little ambivalent about it. I saw it mainly as a time when I was supposed to be resting up for my approaching race, but I was worried about slacking off too much.
Oh the naivety of inexperience!
Let me take a moment for a little exposition, because I tend to assume everyone knows how long a marathon, and therefore a half marathon, is. A marathon is 26.2 miles, so a half is 13.1.
Finishing a half marathon is a completely worthy endeavor, and I'm proud that I've finished six. But while a full marathon is mathematically simply twice as much distance, I can now say, even without having finished one yet, that a full marathon is way more than the twice of the effort and experience.
In this context, tapering is a necessity for me, not just to be rested up for the marathon, but for survival. My body and mind also need a chance to recover from training. I am no longer worried about taking it too easy while tapering.
Besides, I've learned that tapering for a marathon doesn't mean three weeks of laying around on the couch. I'm still running, just not nearly as much, or in such concentrated doses. While next week I'll only be running a total of 4 hours, that's just 1 hour and 15 minutes less that my "normal," non-marathon training weekly running total.
More interestingly, I've learned that there is much more to tapering than the physical aspect. It's a time for pause and reflect, for spiritual contemplation...by which I mean, it's an opportunity to take some time to say, "Holy crap, I am pretty effin' awesome." For the last 3 months I have been extremely dedicated to a pretty challenging training program, and have only missed one run. In the last month I've run 184.2 miles, (72 more than I normally would) and that's included one 20 and two 21 mile runs.
So yeah, I think I kinda rock.
But in addition to the basking, I am also honestly doing some pondering (hence, this blog post, and hopefully, more to come). Those 184.2 miles weren't just covered by my legs, but my brain and my heart (and my stomach). Surely there must be some life lessons among all those miles.
Tapering is a time of rest, recovery, reflection, rejoicing, relief, and...restlessness? Actually, it's not surprising that many runners gets anxious as their marathon approaches. It's more surprising that it hasn't hit me that hard yet. I'm mostly aware of the phenomenon, known as "tapering madness," because of the interwebs and social media.
I think I just haven't had time to fully savor tapering madness yet. I've been too busy with "band madness" and "theater madness" and "general Amy madness." Rest assured, I do not want to miss out on any chance to be legitimately nutty. So now I not only have actual tapering madness, but also FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) on tapering madness to contend with.
I haven't done enough reading yet to find out if this is part of tapering madness, but my relief at being finished with the hardest part of training is also laced with disappointment and regret. Sure, training was exhausting and all-consuming in a way I could have never imagined before experiencing it, and so I'm glad that hard part is over...but that's also why I loved it. I loved the experience of being totally immersed.
So many conflicting thoughts and emotions...perhaps THIS is the real reason so many runners resort to carbo-loading. It's hard to have an existential crisis if you're too busy stuffing pasta in your face. I just resolve not to make any decisions about running another marathon until I lose the weight I've gained from bingeing on crackers and alcohol during this round of training.
I've written about tapering before, as I was approaching my first ever half marathon (Tip Tapering Away). Back then, I was a little ambivalent about it. I saw it mainly as a time when I was supposed to be resting up for my approaching race, but I was worried about slacking off too much.
Oh the naivety of inexperience!
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| Actually, come closer so I can tell you all about it... |
Finishing a half marathon is a completely worthy endeavor, and I'm proud that I've finished six. But while a full marathon is mathematically simply twice as much distance, I can now say, even without having finished one yet, that a full marathon is way more than the twice of the effort and experience.
In this context, tapering is a necessity for me, not just to be rested up for the marathon, but for survival. My body and mind also need a chance to recover from training. I am no longer worried about taking it too easy while tapering.
Besides, I've learned that tapering for a marathon doesn't mean three weeks of laying around on the couch. I'm still running, just not nearly as much, or in such concentrated doses. While next week I'll only be running a total of 4 hours, that's just 1 hour and 15 minutes less that my "normal," non-marathon training weekly running total.
More interestingly, I've learned that there is much more to tapering than the physical aspect. It's a time for pause and reflect, for spiritual contemplation...by which I mean, it's an opportunity to take some time to say, "Holy crap, I am pretty effin' awesome." For the last 3 months I have been extremely dedicated to a pretty challenging training program, and have only missed one run. In the last month I've run 184.2 miles, (72 more than I normally would) and that's included one 20 and two 21 mile runs.
So yeah, I think I kinda rock.
But in addition to the basking, I am also honestly doing some pondering (hence, this blog post, and hopefully, more to come). Those 184.2 miles weren't just covered by my legs, but my brain and my heart (and my stomach). Surely there must be some life lessons among all those miles.
Tapering is a time of rest, recovery, reflection, rejoicing, relief, and...restlessness? Actually, it's not surprising that many runners gets anxious as their marathon approaches. It's more surprising that it hasn't hit me that hard yet. I'm mostly aware of the phenomenon, known as "tapering madness," because of the interwebs and social media.
I think I just haven't had time to fully savor tapering madness yet. I've been too busy with "band madness" and "theater madness" and "general Amy madness." Rest assured, I do not want to miss out on any chance to be legitimately nutty. So now I not only have actual tapering madness, but also FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) on tapering madness to contend with.
I haven't done enough reading yet to find out if this is part of tapering madness, but my relief at being finished with the hardest part of training is also laced with disappointment and regret. Sure, training was exhausting and all-consuming in a way I could have never imagined before experiencing it, and so I'm glad that hard part is over...but that's also why I loved it. I loved the experience of being totally immersed.
So many conflicting thoughts and emotions...perhaps THIS is the real reason so many runners resort to carbo-loading. It's hard to have an existential crisis if you're too busy stuffing pasta in your face. I just resolve not to make any decisions about running another marathon until I lose the weight I've gained from bingeing on crackers and alcohol during this round of training.
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