Week 17 - The Terror of the Taper

Before I go into my weekly recap, I want to share a column from the Sunday, April 5 issue of The Boston Globe regarding the shortage of women's addiction treatment beds in the City of Boston.  I pitched this story to the wonderful Yvonne Abraham at the Globe with the emphasis that when the Long Island Bridge closed in October, 70% of the City's addiction recovery beds for women were lost.  It's been almost 6 months since the Island was evacuated and none of those beds have been restored - and recently released statistics show an increase in women's overdoses in the first three months of 2015.  Getting these beds - including the 47 that were held by Victory Programs' Joelyn's Family Home - need to be a bigger priority for the City of Boston.

I am grateful to Yvonne for writing such a stellar column and helping give voice to women in our community who are in need of recovery programs like the ones we run at Victory Programs.

I am running the 2015 Boston Marathon of them, and the 2,300 other men, women and families Victory Programs serves every year.  If you'd like to support this incredible agency with a donation to my Marathon fundraiser page, please click here.

Taper Time and Ailing Knees

When I finished my 20 mile run and knew I was headed into the taper for the Marathon I was sooooo excited.  Now I had the opportunity to rest my much beleaguered knees and not feel guilty about it.  I knew I could do a few short runs a week without pressure on saving them for a massive weekend long run.  It was a relief.

Of course, once you actually start tapering it doesn't feel like a relief at all.  Instead, you just feel terrified that between now and race day you will forget how to use your legs and how to breath properly and just languish on the course a half-mile in.  Obviously, that's not what's going to happen but it's a fear I think a lot of my fellow runners face.

I am happy to report that me knees felt better this week than they had for a long, long time.  I was bopping up and down stairs like a kid of 33 again!  It made me feel really hopeful that they would be in good fighting shape on April 20.

I had a busy first half of the week so I wasn't able to get a short run in until Wednesday.  The weather was lovely and I was able to do a quick 3 miler around the Mystic River.  I normally follow the inside path around the River (it's prettier and involves looking at fewer cars), but I wasn't sure if the gravel and dirt portions of the path would be dry or snow free yet, so I stuck to the outside edge. 

I am so glad to have this favorite running spot back to normal after this horrible winter.  I can't wait for the grass to start growing back in and the trees to sprout new leaves and start spotting the adorable rabbits that start popping up along the path.  That's when I'll really feel like spring has hit Boston!  Although, seeing these little guys sprouting up on my street helps too :)

Since I hadn't been running a lot over the past month or so because of my knees, I knew I needed to keep my miles in check.  It would have been easy for me to run my usual 20-25 miles in smaller increments throughout the week if I didn't pay attention.  If I did that, I wouldn't really be tapering the way I was supposed to.  So, I took the good feelings from my Wednesday run and let them take me into my Saturday long run.

I DID NOT WANT TO RUN ON SATURDAY.  I cannot express to you how much I wanted to just  hang out in my pajamas and watch TV all day long on Saturday.  It's been awhile since I've felt the pull of the couch so severely.  This is why I am keeping this blog.  If I skipped it, I would have to justify it to all of you and I couldn't.  I was just being lazy.  So, when the clouds dissipated and the sun came out, I finally dragged my lazy butt out of the house for a 12 mile run.

The Mystic River swans are my favorite (after the bunnies)

I didn't feel the desire to run into Boston or the Minuteman trail like I usually do for long runs, so I did a few loops around the Mystic, Assembly Row and over by the Wellington T station.  It involved some loops and back and forths resulting in one of the weirdest looking GPS maps I've ever seen.  Try to make heads or tails of the route I took and I'll give you a prize :)

Whaaaa?

Wind swept and ouchie.

The run was actually fine with the exception of a tremendous amount of wind from time to time, but the sun shined for most of it and it was warm enough to just run in a t-shirt and capri pants.  The one big problem with my run on Saturday was that I ran out of KT tape last week and forgot to buy more.  I thought I'd be fine without it for a shorter run...and I wasn't.  A little more than half way through I knew my left knee was going to hurt.  And it did.  And it continues to.

I am so mad at myself for making such a bonehead move.  I should have gotten some tape before my run and not taken such a stupid chance on my knee heath.  I'm especially furious that I allowed myself to go from feeling the best I'd felt in months to going back to a week of ice, ibuprofen and rest.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.

So for this week, the big focus is on healing the ol' knee.  My boyfriend's brother-in-law is a seasoned marathoner and he told me flat out to just stop running until race day and focus on getting my knee as healthy as possible.  I don't know that I'll be able to stop all together, but I am going to take his advice and be as cautious as possible so I don't make any more dumb mistakes between now and then!