Hello from Preggo-ville!
Lily asked me to stop by so I could toss in a few of these:
After a year or two for some of you and 3 months of "official training"--you are in the HOME STRETCH!!!! WTG!!!!!!!!!!
You made it to Taper-Land, now what are you gonna do?
That's right--in 3.5 weeks you will be at the land of mouse pushing some shoe leather to collect that Mickey or Donald!!!!!!
From my coaches mouth for the past two years, to my ears, to your eyes:
ANYTHING that happens now--you get a headache and you have to miss a run, you get the sniffles and you must miss a workout, your muscles are a wee bit on the burning side so you want to take an extra recovery day.....GUESS WHAT?????
It won't change the fact that you are ready for race day. 2 seasons ago--my taper got cancelled b/c I hurt my back on my 20-miler. Coaches told me to ICE and REST and do nothing. HUH---I still have 4 weeks left, what do you mean to do nothing???? They said get it better--then do some baby-easy-things and all will be fine on race day.
Last year--I couldn't run from the end of October until Thanksgiving due to knee surgery. But I finished the half in near record time--it was only 15 minutes slower than my PR. Not too shabby for 1 month off where for the first two weeks, my exercise consisted of range of motion stuff.
It is so easy to be in disbelief if you have to take care of yourself in these final weeks and sacrifice a run or two to recover from something. It truly is NO BIG DEAL!!!
You have spent several months training--what you can do on race day isn't a matter of what you can't do in these last few weeks..it is an accumulation of everything you have done to date.
So what does that mean:
Take NO RISKS!!!! You have a ski holiday planned? Cross-country it!
Your muscles are screaming for you to do just a few more miles? Whip them into submission with a massage--but don't give in.
You think you need to get in another super long day the week before just to try it and see if you can do it? TRUST THAT YOU CAN and stick to the taper!!
Best of all---YOU CAN DO IT!!!
I stood at the finish line of the full last year. I had knee surgery and a wonderful PT who got me to the half--so since I coudln't do the full..I went and watched all the runners come in!
Let me tell you---don't be frightened....b/c you CAN FINISH!!! It may be the best day of your life--it may be the worst day of your life....but YOU CAN DO IT!!!! Have fun---stay ahead of those sweepers..and make it to the finish line.
Even if you are the last person "running" while a Disney CM is casually walking behind you with the clock on wheels---you are finishing...you WILL get that medal!!!!
Good luck! Do NOT try anything new on race day--no new shoes, no new gu's, no new power bars, no new pretty outfit that you saved just for race day...no new nothing. Your body will thank you for it!!!
So run or walk or scoot that 13.1 or 26.2 and remember that the preggo Wish chick who can't be there---is thinking about you every mile.
Lastly--have a mantra--something you can repeat to yourself when the negative thoughts enter your head. Chase those negative thoughts away!
It starts with one step--it finishes with one step. It isn't rocket science, just a bunch of steps.
As the Penguin would say--"YOU ARE AT DISNEY WORLD FOR PETE'S SAKE! WHAT'S THE RUSH???" Then he said something about having fun that I have long since forgotten. (Team In Training Pasta Dinner, WDW 2006, keynote speaker)