Taper Snooze

I am having a problem with the snooze button.  

As in, I am hitting it far too much.

It's taper week for me, in preparation for the Old-Fashioned 10 Miler this coming Sunday.  This past weekend I ran my last long run in prep for this race - a 9 miler from my gym on Saturday morning after my Total Immersion class.  I had a good amount of hemming and hawing about how and when to get this run in - between the cold temps, the predicted storm for Sunday (which never happened), and a birthday party on Saturday afternoon, Friday night I was in a tizzy as to whether I should treadmill it, brave the cold, do it at home, do it at the gym, do a spin class instead.... decisions are so hard.  But I truly feel superstitious about The Running Gods - fickle deities that reward effort, but also dole out injuries to unsuspecting disciples like the vengeful gods of old.  I feel like training mostly inside for an outdoor race is testing the limits of their patience, so after driving my planned route to make sure sidewalks and shoulders were mostly clear and the footing would be ok, I headed outside.

Golden arches pit stop.  This and the playground
is all McDonalds is good for.

Love these

The route I chose starts with the first two miles up a fairly decent grade, so my pace naturally was slow.  Sheriff gave me no specific pace goals except to attempt negative splits in the second 4.5.  Which I figured I could do, since the second half was more or less downhill.  (What goes up, must..... yeah).  It was overall a nice run.  Beautiful sparkling snow, blue skies. A bathroom stop at McDonalds was much more comfy than some of my usual accommodations.  I couldn't remember how to reset my Garmin, so I ran totally by feel. 

Once I made it back to my car, I checked Strava and was pretty disappointed with my overall pace.  Nearly 12 minute miles.  Wasn't I supposed to be getting better at this?  My midweek treadmill runs were much closer to 9 and 10 minute miles (albeit shorter).  What the heck?

Love Strava.  It give you medals for even crummy runs.

So this run didn't do much for my confidence going into this weekend's race.  But I know I am being silly.  For heaven's sake - I actually RAN all nine miles, something that I couldn't do even a month ago.  Afterwards Sheriff told me not to worry about the pace, but that yes he did expect me to run faster at the race and my half marathon in March.  Ok.  Maybe less looking at scenery, more learning to set Garmin better and sticking to a pace.  But also, I have to remember that I've not been running very long in the grand scheme of things.  Hummingbird (a consistent 8-9 minute mile pacer) told me a while ago that she didn't crack 10 minute miles until she got serious about her training last fall.  This sentiment was echoed in today's post by Sue for This Momma Runs for Cupcakes.  This is my beginning.  

Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party of a good friend's baby son.  We had a lot of fun making his cake.  Then on Sunday I was supposed to have a trainer ride, but my body wanted a rest day.  So I took the kids to the gym to play in the kid gym and to swim.  After an hour of playing and running around the gym, I took the kids into the pool, only to have my little guy (who has had a cold for weeks just like the rest of us), tell me that his ear hurt and he wanted to go home.  He was lethargically floating on his noodle - not getting his had wet or jumping or splashing or anything.  So I packed up my wet and crying kids and headed home.  Sheriff's comment on that workout in Training Peaks - "Having kids sounds tiring."  Oh yes.    

Spaced Out Birthday Cake

Sunday evening, after being in charge of the kids all day (Jedi was on a baking binge in the kitchen), I really needed some yoga.  I told the kids, "I am taking over your playroom.  I have played with you all day.  For the next 45 minutes, I get to be the most important person in this family.  You are welcome to stay and do yoga with me, to play quietly in the leftover space, but you may not fight with eachother or bother me.  If you do, you will go to your room until I am done."  Yes moms, it's ok to say you're important.  The kids nodded solemnly.  I picked an advance Vinyasa flow video (a style that moves quickly through postures so you get a good amount of flexibility and power).  To my surprise, the kids followed along for nearly the whole 45 minutes.  They did great.  They also thought Mommy trying to do a headstand was hilarious.

So now it's two days later, and I haven't worked out since.  Yesterday's trainer ride got snooze buttoned.  And then further cancelled when I decided a craft night out with girlfriends was much more what I needed than another sweat session in the basement.  I set the alarm this morning fully ready to atone.  It went off, I got up, brushed my teeth, changed, and then went back to bed.  Again.  My body is still sore from the long run and from the yoga session (which despite the cute kid pictures was H-A-R-D).  My body and spirit seem to want rest.  And that is okay.  It is taper week, after all.

I did however, pack a bag for my lunch break, so three miles or so need to happen during the day today.  I warned Sheriff I was going to be an exceptionally bad athlete this week, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

How long did it take you to get to your pace goals consistently?
How do you fight the snooze button??  Motivate me!