But before we get to that, gather round, for it is time for Angela's Anxiety Dream Story Hour. Friday night was just two days before Race to the End of Summer, and what better time for a crazy anxiety race dream.
Apparently, I had realized that through some kind of calendar magic, I somehow had a BQ that made me eligible to run in the 2019 race (I don't), and though I had kind of sworn off marathons for a while, I thought, "Well, you never know what could happen, I might never qualify again, I should take advantage of it! And maybe it won't be an arctic flood of Biblical proportions this time!"
In my dream this all happened like two weeks before the race, so I just kind of showed up, with no particular marathon training under my belt, figuring I can probably always *finish* a marathon, even if it's not particularly fast. Then as I was heading to the Athlete's Village, it occurred to me that sure, I could probably *finish*, but I'd probably fuck up my skin and toenails again and be in serious pain for a week, and then Don would be mad at me because I didn't tell him ("You said you were going to stop breaking yourself!"), and for a moment I considered whether this was really the best choice. But hey, I figured, why have ONE Boston Marathon medal when you can have TWO Boston Marathon medals.
However, just as I started towards the Athlete's Village, I realized that I'd completely forgotten to go to the expo the day before and get my bib or drop a bag of clothes at the finish. So I started freaking out and harassing race volunteers ("OMG, you guys, I AM SO SORRY but I have FORGOTTEN TO GET MY BIB, what can be done??"
And of course, the volunteers were like "WE GOT YOU!" and drove me in a golf cart to their super secret Boston Marathon Underground Warehouse Bunker where a big box of un-picked-up bibs were waiting. After a while they dug out mine. We got it pinned on but then I couldn't figure out the logistics of getting my warm-ups in the drop bag to the finish line, so I kept thinking maybe I could just abandon them, or stash them somewhere here in Hopkinton to grab later. No such luck; I'd have to run in them.
Except, the race had started hours ago, and even all the Wave 4 folks were long since over the start line. The course was confusing (it is not, in real life) and I couldn't figure out which direction to go. They'd already opened the roads to traffic, and I was pretty much just jogging around Hopkinton asking random pedestrians if they knew which direction went to Boston. Only people just stared at me like I had seven heads and hurried away.
So yeah, CRAZY ANXIETY RACE DREAMS THE DAY BEFORE A REAL RACE, GOOD TIMES!!!
Grand Total: 24.49 miles
- * 13 easy
* 5.12 speed
* 6.37 race
Monday 8/27: Karate. Not gonna lie, my favorite thing about taper weeks is not going to the gym in the morning.
Tuesday 8/28: 1.5 warm up, 6 x 200m / 200m jog, 2 @ MP/AT pace, 6 x 200m / 200m jog, 1.5 cool down.
- Ah, good old 200m's, how I've missed you. Not.
Though, they annoyed me less on Tuesday than usual. I'm usually assigned to do them in the 0:45-47 range; when I'm feeling fresh this pace seems weirdly slow and I will easily tick them off in 0:42-44, but when I'm tired or my legs are feeling the miles, it's a relief to "only" have to go that fast.
Having not run 200m's in a few months, I thought, "Well, let me just tick one off in what seems like a reasonable-but-not-hammering-things pace & see where I land." Well, that ended up being a 0:40 200m, my friends. Yes, I've run them that fast before, but usually only when I'm very fit and fresh and really want to hammer it & see what happens.
Next one: "Cool, let's slow things down a bit." --> 0:42. Not usually the 200m I think of when I think of "slowing things down." I tried taking it easier on the third and guess what, 0:40 again.
Like. I don't know what's going on. Obviously, this is not a fitness thing. All I can come up with is 1) I've been in the gym twice a week lifting (which improves power), 2) I've been doing reallllly brief simple plyometrics more or less once a week, and 3) I've been working on my knee drive quite a bit (which was almost non-existent before), even on slow easy runs.
When I tried to *really* slow things down a bit, and then also doing the back six on tired legs, they were more in the 0:42-44 range. Usually "really slowing things down" and doing 200m's "on tired legs" results in 0:45-47's though. {shrug emoji}
Wednesday 8/29: Karate & keep resting up for Sunday.
Thursday 8/30: 6 easy
Friday 8/31: 6 easy Rest.
- Though it didn't feel like it at the time, I think in retrospect that Tuesday speed workout trashed my legs a bit more than I'd bargained for. On Thursday's easy six my legs just felt really heavy and tired, and because of other plans if I was going to do the Friday six, I'd have to do it on less than 24 hours recovery. When I woke up Friday morning with legs still feeling tired, I decided I'd rather give them an extra rest day to freshen up for the race. So this was a consciously-decided unplanned rest day, I guess you could call it.
Saturday 9/1: 2 easy. Just a quick shake-out.
Sunday 9/2: 2 warm up + 6.37 race!
By the time you read this I'll probably be through kinda-sorta-not-really racing my first XC race in 20 years, a little 6K through GG Park. No pressure here; just kind of want to see how it feels & if it's something I might want to do more of.
Hope your weekend was good!
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