17 - wednesday

I had a complete taper meltdown this morning.  I woke up exhausted, feeling like I could sleep all day.  I was starving, I felt dehydrated. when, after snoozing my alarm for 45 minutes instead of getting up to do my scheduled 3-mile run, I decided to get my act together and swung my legs over the bed to get up, I felt a stinging pain in my back.  my knees felt stiff.  walking to the kitchen to make coffee, I rolled my head back and forth gently and cracked my neck. my ankles popped all on their own.  


do I sound like a ninety year old nursing home resident? want to trade lives? no? ok.

in case you're new around here, I thrive on organization and preparedness.  waking up five days before boston feeling like my body was falling apart is not exactly a reassuring sign. to top it all off, final school responsibilities are ramping up, my fellowship work is driving me insane, and I'm trying to stay calm and apply to jobs.  I know it's normal tapering blues: feeling cranky from the decreased mileage, feeling hungry even though I'm running less, feeling restless and exhausted at the same time, feeling irrationally irritable at the most minor inconveniences. reading about other runners' accounts of taper blues and the techniques they employ to push through this week of phantom pain and pre-race anxiety certainly helps.


so does cooking.


cooking, after running, is my favorite form of stress relief.  I did a lot of cooking last summer after the seattle marathon, when I was running less but still needed an escape from the pressures of school.  


this morning I found a way to combine cooking with time-management with advanced preparedness. I realize I'm making myself sound like a wizard, but it really wasn't anything glamorous. I stuck a cup of wild rice blend on the stove and set the timer for 45 minutes to do it's thing. 

not my most thrilling culinary venture, but that's fine. the end product is four ready-to-eat portions of my #1 fave carb - rice - that will save me from spending money on take-out (since clearly I have no time for the grocery store). everyone wins, even my panicking inner taper beast.