Tapering and My Tapeworm

by Carilyn on December 9, 2011

It’s taper time – my race is next weekend – and all I want to do is eat!  Surprise!  Just because my mileage has decreased doesn’t mean my appetite is cooperating.  Pizza and chocolate and doughnuts, Oh my!

I stopped at the store to pick up a prescription and couldn’t resist the glazed doughnuts.  Now, I’m afraid to leave the house because I can’t be trusted not to buy an entire German Chocolate cake.

Before I started my taper, I ran 3 weeks straight without a break, averaging 140 miles per week and 15,000 meters of swimming.  I rested two days this week (Wednesday completely, and walking yesterday), but did a moderate 10 mile trail run this morning.  I’m not sure what I will do this weekend, as I am trying to balance my need to stay fluid with my bigger need not to go into a 24 Hour race even slightly fatigued.  I will just have to listen to my body and keep it simple.

On a fun note, got an e-mail from Debbie Horn, and she is still on for the race.  I haven’t seen her in awhile, so it will be a blast to run with her again.  She ran over 131 miles in October at Nationals, so it is going to be fun to watch what she can do – probably break another record, if I know Debbie!  There are a bunch of other awesome runners attending the Desert Solstice 24 Hour, so it will be great to be a competitor AND a spectator 🙂

Happy Running!

{ 6 comments }

SteveQ December 10, 2011 at 9:12 am

AVERAGING 140 miles per week?! Okay, intellectually I can break that down to two 10 milers every day and it doesn’t sound like so much, but… whoa, that’s a lot of miles. Sounds like you’re ready for some big numbers; best of luck at Desert Solstice!

olga December 11, 2011 at 7:14 am

Steve, Carilyn always loved to run 20 miles a day, she won’t go for less:)
I hope you have a grand time, and lucky you for inhaling food without consequences. I need to get on with the program and loose 10 lbs, and it ain’t going to be pretty.
Did I see your name on WS entrants list?

Nicolas Silva December 11, 2011 at 7:58 pm

Have a great run at Desert Solstice 24Hr! I am doing Across The Years 24Hr, but have been recently plagued with foot problems [walking is even painful] (even though I just ran [Dec 3] a really relaxed 33 miles [trail] at Mark Dorion’s Sagebrush Shuffle 9hr). So well see how that goes. All I can do is taper and hope for the best. Enjoy the track; Can’t wait to track/cheer on everyone’s progress/national&worldclass performances! (p.s. Blogging about what delicious food/support they have, and what your race nutrition/hydration strategy is would be awesome!) Random Sidenote: I am really excited to see what fantastic performance Michael Arnstein [The Fruitarian] will do.

Best Wishes,

Nico from El Paso

Carilyn December 11, 2011 at 8:20 pm

Hi Steve! Thanks so much! I hope to get the proverbial monkey off my back. If nothing else, it will be fun to watch all the “superstars” go for records.

Carilyn December 11, 2011 at 8:22 pm

Yes! I’m so excited that I got in! SD100 may be out, but I’m looking at AC100 if you are interested. It is later in the year, so I will have time to recover. It would be fun to run a race together, and I could use some help on the downhills 🙂

Carilyn December 11, 2011 at 8:27 pm

Thank you, Nico! I’m sorry to hear that you are having foot problems. I hope that you heal up before ATY. I stopped by to watch friends last year, and it looks like so much fun! I am also very excited to see what other runners will accomplish – the field is tight. Nick always puts on a first-class race, so I know we will be well taken care of. I received a packet in the mail last week (with a Yiannis Kouros DVD in it – how cool is that?), listing all the services provided. The Coury brothers intend to really help us all have a great race. It looks like a great venue for some AR/WRs.

I will try to blog specifically about the experience – and I will be home for Christmas if you want more info.

Thanks for stopping by!

Carilyn

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