Taper Tics

This morning I was sleepy when my alarm went off at 6 a.m. I'd had another 3 a.m. Will wake-up. This time he needed me to find Mr. Wawa, encourage him to use the bathroom...and to answer this question (and this is a spooky one from a preschooler when it's the wee hours and you're talking to him in the nightlight's bleary glow): "Mommy, are there real bottomless pits in this world?"

Since it's Taper Week, though, this wasn't a problem. At 6 a.m. I rolled over and went back to sleep for another hour. I had only a 30-minute run scheduled and I knew there would be plenty of time to do that on my break at work. And there was. It was hot but it felt good, like all runs do when you're tapering.

Here are some things I'm doing (other than ignoring my alarm) to make the taper feel special:

1) I'm ditching the Garmin until D-Day on Saturday. My old Timex died a couple of weeks back, so I'd been using the Garmin even on easy runs. Not this week. I borrowed Dan's Swiss Army watch and will do all my easy ones with it. No tracking miles. No tracking pace, even on the little shake-out track workout my McMillan plan is allowing me tomorrow. I'm going purely by feel.

2) I'm also ditching the tunes until the last eight-point-two miles of Saturday's race. Even on said track workout. The iPod is getting a rest. And when I do put on the phones this weekend, I'm going back to my old-school ones. I can't imagine trying to squish the Yurbuds into my sensitive ears when I'm 18 miles into what will hopefully be a fast-for-me marathon.

3) I've read a lot about really fast, awesome runners having stomach trouble in their recent races. I still don't have the magic bullet for this. But I've gotta try. So starting Wednesday it's good-bye to dairy (even my beloved Greek yogurt), nuts and nut butters, any and all things with artificial sweeteners (yep, I mean you Nuun, as good as you do taste and hydrate), anything spicy (salsa....sigh....) and anything with too much fiber (broccoli, whole wheat pasta, beans). I may even avoid my husband's tasty bread because he uses whole-wheat flour.

What will I eat and drink? Very bland things....grilled chicken, hard-boiled eggs, toast, white pasta with garlic and olive oil, tortillas, big pretzels with lots of salt, fruit (though probably not the night before, except for bananas), V8 juice and cranberry juice (I do NOT want another UTI or kidney infection).

4) I'm trying to read stuff that has nothing to do with running. Yesterday I picked up The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Anyone out there read that? I also have 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.

But I can't help dipping into some running things. Blogs, of course! And Running the Edge. And I pore over my now dog-eared McMillan spreadsheet, as if just reading it again will reveal some secret that could unlock Saturday for me.

5) I'm playing lots of two-handed bridge with Dan. Yes, bridge is a game for four people. But Will and Ruthie aren't quite ready to play with us yet (Ruth's getting pretty good at playing war, though) so we make do, each of us playing two of the four hands. It's hard to get better without playing, and we've found most of the bridge groups around here meet when one or both of us are at work.

6) I'm thinking about my playlist for those last 8.2 miles. Post on that to come!

Here's another video, this one courtesy of Christine, who told me about this on our hike last week. Since I'm sharing a hotel room this weekend with the awesome Erin of See Mom Run Far and her friend, Alana, I don't think the alarm issue will be a problem for me. And I don't plan to accept any hot tea from spectators....