Countdown to Boston: One Week to Go

It seems hard to believe, but after months of training, the 119th Boston Marathon is exactly one week away. By this time next week, I'll be sitting in the Athletes Village waiting for them to call us to the corrals.

For me, one week to go means a lot of things. For one, it means cutting out caffeine. Last week I began weaning myself off of it slowly, first by replacing my second cup of coffee with half-decaf, then making that second cup all decaf. Starting today, it's all decaf until the race. I like to ween myself off of caffeine so that on race morning when I take caffeinated gels, I really feel the boost. It's also probably not a bad idea to break my coffee-dependence every once in a while anyway.

Another thing the one week mark signals is that it's time to start obsessing about the weather. Yes, a lot can change over the next seven days, but that won't stop me from clicking refresh on weather.com and NOAA.gov several times an hour and worrying about every minor temperature increase or shift in wind direction.

With one week to go there's also no more time for any junk food or mindless snacking. From no until the race I aim to be very mindful about what I ingest. I only have about 20 miles scheduled between now and the marathon so I try to watch what I eat even more so than usual. I'll spend the whole week praying no one brings cupcakes into the office.

It's also time to start thinking about my packing list--I'll be posting something about that later in the week. Do I have everything I need? Are there any last minutes errands I need to run to restock on any pre-race essentials?

Finally, it's time to relax. This may not seem to go with everything else I've said above, but I'm going to try and take it easy this week. That may mean extra Netflix or some light reading. One thing it should definitely mean is catching up on sleep. The last thing I want is to head into next weekend sleep deprived since I know the closer I get to the race, the harder it is to get any shut-eye.

So with all that in mind, I'm going to try and enjoy this final week of taper. Only 169 hours to go!

Taper Time Changes

Well, it's official--the taper is here! Technically my Boston taper started last week but with the Cherry Blossom race, a midweek medium long run, and a track workout, it didn't feel like a light week.  This week's drop in mileage, however, should be a whole lot more noticeable.

Now that I'm cutting back my mileage, I've made some other changes in my routine to make sure I'm at my best on Marathon Monday.

1. More Sleep - I'm usually pretty good at getting a full night's sleep on weeknights, but come weekends I let myself stay up later. From now until the race, however, I'm sticking to an early bedtime. Having an established routine will help come the night before when I'm desperately trying to fall asleep.

2. More Vegetables - I do eat a lot of vegetables already, but during the taper I try and replace more carbs and fats with vegetables. Since I'm not running 70 miles, I don't need the same amount of food. I find I eat more sensibly when I just temporarily replace some other foods with fruits and veggies.

3. No Alcohol - Starting three weeks out I cut out all booze. This serves two real purposes, it helps me keep caloric intake in check as I cut down my mileage and it helps me get more or at least better sleep.

4. Dialing Down Cross-Training - Cutting back on running doesn't mean anything if I just pick up the intensity on cross-training. I usually cut out cross-training two weeks before and cut out strength training one week before.

All my trameframes listed above are subjective. They're what has worked for me in the past so I'm sticking to them this cycle. If you've got different changes that you make, or different schedules for incorporating similar changes, I'd love to hear them!
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Today's Run: 9.1 at 7:56 pace.

The Morning Runner's Schedule

Once upon a time I was night owl. Okay, not really, but I used to stay up past 10pm on weeknights. I've been more of a morning person than a night owl for as long as I can remember--you try working in bakery in high school and see what that does to your sleep schedule--but I would still stay awake for prime time television.

During undergrad, my schedule began to shift slowly towards the morning hours. I've always preferred running at the start of my day, but somehow I've let me day start earlier and earlier. It used to be a morning run meant waking up at 7:30am, maybe 7:00 if I wanted a longer run. Bedtime was a respectable 10pm or 10:30 in those youthful days.

Now? I might as well be called grandpa with the hours I keep. My usual bedtime is now closer to 8pm no matter what time I'm getting up (4:45 for a medium long run, 5:45 for a shorter run). Having a weeknight get-together at 8:30? Don't expect me to show up. Dinner at 7:30? Can we move it forward at least a half hour?

The thing is, I don't mind my old man bedtime. I seriously value my sleep and consider it an essential part of training, but I'm sure most non-runners (and probably plenty of after-work runners) thing I'm a few cards short of a full deck.

I'd like to say that once marathon training is over my sleep schedule will return to something that let's me watch 30 Rock when it's actually on TV, but summer's coming up: if you want to beat the heat, you have to run before the sun comes up!