Fit Tip Friday: The Magical Taper.

Here I am in the midst of taper madness for the Outer Banks Marathon.

The taper: you know, that magical place when you sit back and enjoy all this extra free time and relish in all your hard work over the past 18 weeks....

Wait, what? It doesn't feel magical to me!

In fact, I'd say the taper kind of sucks.

Why does the taper suck?

• You start second guessing all of your training.
• You worry about the race.
• Your body feels sluggish.
• You feel lazy.                                                                                                          
• You feel like you should be doing more.
• You catch a cold.
• Your muscles ache.
• You feel heavy.
• You are a little heavy- you gained a pound or two.

 Sound magical to you?

To clarify, the taper is the weeks before a key race where you cut back your mileage and let your muscles repair. Your body recovers from all the hard work you have been putting it through during training. You focus on replenishing all your glycogen stores in preparation for race day.

The general recommended taper for a marathon is 3 weeks, though some people do a 2 week taper.

For me, the taper isn't magical. Instead, it can suck a little, but I put together a few tips to help make the taper a little less "sucky" and maybe a little more "magical."

Don't overload. 

Yes, you can replenish your glycogen stores and carbo-load, but don't go crazy.  Keep it simple, keep it light, keep it easy to digest.

Don't cram. 

Now is not the time to make up for lost time. Don't try to cram in extra runs or miles. They will only hurt you at this point.

Don't stress about every ache or pain. 

Most of those phantom pains are part of the rejuvenation process that the is going through during the taper. Try to think of this as a good sign-rather than a pesky problem or cause for alarm. Your body is getting stronger during this healing process.

Finalize your race day outfit. 

Make a checklist for race day. Re-read this post for managing race morning. Finalize your race outfit, but don't forget- nothing new!

Mentally Prepare

Review your training log and pick out a few key runs where you felt strong. Focus on THOSE run and how great you felt! 

Pracice your mantras. 

"This is just me getting closer to my goals!"

Stay away from germs.

Become a little bit of a hypochondriac.  There's nothing wrong with Purell, Airborne or whatever other preventive measures you take to ensure you don't get a cold.

Stay busy.

Stay busy, but not with extra cross training or running, but with other activities. Grab a coffee with a friend, pick up a new book. Do some online shopping (one of my personal favorites). Keep your mind off running a bit.

Sleep.

MinneapolisRunning had a great post here about the importance of sleep and a good night's rest is even more critical leading up to race day.

Relax.  

You got this.

**I know that this post isn't all that timely since most of you are done with your fall marathons. But there are a few of us still counting down the days until our next marathon (9 days for me!!!)

There is a big group in the CBRC running the Philadelphia marathon November 23, so hopefully this post is helpful to them when they get into their "magical" taper time!

Weekly Recap: Tapering for the Outer Banks Marathon and the Brooks Heritage Line

Welcome to the final week of October! Can you believe it? This month has been so much fun, but it definitely flew by. 

Let me fill you in on what's happening at the Right Fits in Fitness and Fitness Fashion this past week.

Here's what's happening in fitness:

Monday: 6.75 miles in the morning with my friend Kelly and my dog Matilda. Then, [solidcore] MSP in the evening. I loved [solidcore] MSP so much, but honestly I was sore for three days! It kind of made the rest of the week a challenge for fitness.

Tuesday: I was still sore from [solidcore] MSP but I had a track workout on the schedule. It consisted of about 2 miles to warm-up, then 2 sets of 1600-800-800. There were 30 seconds of recovery between the 800's and one lap (400) between the sets. I did about 1.5 miles to cool-down for 8.5 miles total. This was a tough night for me. I struggled to hit my goal paces for this one. My legs were tired from the 60 mile week the week before and of course from the [solidcore] MSP workout. It's time to really focus on resting now during the taper.

Wednesday: 4 miles easy.

Thursday: 7 miles with 20 minutes of tempo pace, 1 hour kettlebell/strength class with Ericka at Balance Fitness. Great class!

Friday: complete rest day.

Saturday: 15 mile long run. After my long run, I checked out some of the speakers at the Minnesota Blogger's Conference. I learned some useful things, particularly on the technology side, which is not my strong suit. Stay tuned for some big changes on The Right Fits!

Sunday: easy 4 mile run with Matilda

Summary: 2 strength days, 1 rest day, and 6 days of running. My mileage decreased by about 25% from last week's 60 miles. I plan to decrease it another 25% this week to about 35 miles.  

It's definitely taper time now for the Outer Banks Marathon. As often happens during the taper, I caught a cold, which I consider the "curse of the taper." I've been taking it easy trying to fight it off but I'm hoping I'll be back to full strength by November 9th.

For more tips on the taper, check out this post.

Here's what's happening in fitness fashion:

All the real Brooks ambassadors have been blogging about this for months; I'm a little behind the curve.

Though I may not be an official Brooks ambassador, I think I am a Brooks ambassador at heart!
I mean, I have been running in Adrenalines and Ravennas for all 16 of my marathons...

I can't help but get excited about all the cool stuff Brooks is coming out with.

Hold onto your sports bras, ladies, there's some fun stuff coming your way from Brooks!

First of all, they have added shoes to their Nightlife line. These are basically one step down from glowing in the dark, with totally amped up reflectiveness. You might remember the Nightlife line from an event I attended last fall at Marathon Sports running store (read about it HERE).

At that time, the Nightlife line only included apparel. I'm really excited to see that it now includes shoes, especially since it includes my shoe of choice, the Ravennas!

Secondly, Brooks has launched this awesome Heritage Line of sneakers. I think this gold pair of the Brooks Vanguards are my favorites.

I also like the simple blue ones

I am definitely considering ordering a pair of these soon.  I love the throwback style and I have also read that these Heritage shoes each represent a piece of Brooks history. Each shoe has a story that comes with it, including the famous athletes who wore the shoes- so fun! I'm hoping that Brooks adds some apparel (fitness fashion!) to the Heritage line, as I am sure I would love it.

Let me know what you think of these new shoes from Brooks!

I hope you had a great week! Did you try anything new in fitness or fitness fashion? Did you check out the MN Bloggers Conference? What did you think?
Please share!

Weekly Recap: Peak Week of Marathon Training Ending with a Capitol Run!

This week was my peak week of marathon training for the Outer Banks Marathon. You know what else it was the peak week of? Fall colors in Minneapolis! Pictures cannot even capture how gorgeous the Twin Cities are right now. Every day that I drive down my street, I am seriously in awe of how pretty it all is.

These are just a few of the vibrant trees along the river on my long run yesterday. Stunning. This is EVERYWHERE in the Twin Cities right now.

So yes, being peak week of training, it was a full week of running!

Here's how things turned out at the Right Fits in Fitness this week:

Monday: 8 miles of running in the morning, C2 vinyasa yoga class after work at Corepower Yoga. Can you believe it? I actually made it to yoga. I took Nielle's class at the Edina studio and it was PACKED full, which also meant the already heated studio was even hotter than normal. I hadn't taken a hot yoga class in so long that I had to take a lot of breaks, but I still enjoyed the practice. She's such a great teacher.

Tuesday: Tuesday was my birthday and what better way to celebrate than with a track workout!

The workout was a tough one- about 2 miles to warm-up, 1600 at 5k pace, 400m recovery, 3 miles at tempo pace, 400m recovery, 1600 at 5k pace, and then 2 miles to cool-down for about 9.5 miles total. Whew! We celebrated afterwards with Pizza Luce. Happy birthday to me.

Wednesday: 7.5 miles easy with Matilda.

Thursday: 8 miles with 30 minutes at tempo pace (with Matilda- my tempo pace is still her "You call this running?" pace). After work, I took a 1-hour strength/kettlebells class with Ericka Darst at Balance Fitness.  Ericka taught the 10-week strength class I took over the summer at the Calhoun Beach Club, and now she has taken over Sarah's class at Balance. She is great! Seriously, come check out her class on Thursday nights at 6 pm. You will love it!

Friday: Complete rest day.

Saturday: 22 mile Capitol run! I actually went the wrong way around one of the lakes so I ended up with 22.75 miles. Here's how we did this- Dustin and I dropped a car off at the capitol in the morning and then came back to the Calhoun Beach Club. From there, we ran 22 miles of the Twin Cities course (separately of course- he's much faster than me!)

I took a quick selfie with THE bunny around mile 6 of my run.  I love this guy.

Though we were both running alone, we did have two very awesome friends who were on the course with Gatorade and water for us. Thank you both SO, SO much! It made the experience so much more enjoyable to have those support stops to look forward to. Even on a cooler day, the fluids made a huge difference. I did run with my fuel belt, but I filled up my bottles at the stops and took my GUs with the water they provided. More than anything, they provided a mental boost that really kept me going.

I am so grateful to have good running friends who will give up their Saturday morning to help out their friends. Thank you!

Dustin made it to the capitol over a 1/2 hour before me and was enjoying some chocolate milk and snacks that we left in a cooler in the car by the time I arrived.  Did I mention that Saturday was also our wedding anniversary? Six years! We celebrated the way most couples do...running 22 miles.

#anniversaryselfie 

Even though I ran alone, this was probably one of my best capitol runs ever. I wish I could pocket up the way that I felt yesterday and save it for race day.

Sunday: 5.5 easy miles with Matilda and Dustin. Gorgeous fall day.

In summary: SIXTY miles of running, 1 yoga class, 1 strength class, and 1 complete rest day. Feeling strong!

So what's happening in Fitness Fashion at the Right Fits?
I think I have finalized my marathon day outfit- woot, woot!

What I wore for my 22 miler yesterday worked perfectly, so I will wear the exact same thing on race day. I plan to wear these Oiselle roga shorts in "fast red", this Oiselle Scantron Tank top in turquoise, a trusty Serena sports bra by Moving Comfort, one of my many BIC bands, and my Brooks Ravennas.  Outer Banks will be pretty toasty, so I'm not worried about being cold. Fingers crossed that the temps drop a little bit, mmmkay?

That's it for the week from the Right Fits. I hope you had a wonderful week and enjoyed the "peak" colors outside!

How are the fall colors where you live? Did you do anything fun in fitness or fitness fashion this week? Please share!

Weekly Recap: A Romantic Date at the Track and a Lunar Eclipse

Happy October! I love this time of year for so many reasons, but the excitement of the marathon is definitely a big one. Congratulations to my friends who completed the Chicago Marathon today. So many strong races out there!

Here's a quick recap of what happened during the first week of October in Fitness and Fitness Fashion!

First, here's my fitness recap:
Monday: 1 hour barre class at The Barre in the morning, and then in the evening, it was off to the track! I had mile repeats on the OBX marathon training schedule. Workout: 2 mile warm-up, and then five 1600's (4 laps) with 1 recovery lap in between for 9 miles total. This was a really tough workout for me. I tried to stay somewhere between my 5k and 10k pace for the miles. By the fifth one, I was definitely struggling.

It's supposed to be hard! It was only Dustin and me at the track...what a romantic date, right? Nothing says true love like running in the dark at a deserted track until you feel close to puking.

To be honest, it was "fun" when we were done to look back on how this is how we spent our evening together.

Tuesday: I often struggle with a short turnaround between a workout the night before and getting up the next morning, so I knew a Tuesday morning run was not going to happen. But I had to stay late at work Tuesday. Tuesday ended up being a complete rest day. C'est la vie.

Wednesday: 7.5 miles with Matilda. We were up early to catch the lunar eclipse.

Matilda was not impressed...

It was much prettier in real life than what I captured on my iPhone, I swear! There were tons of people out around the lakes with telescopes and cameras as well.

Thursday: Another morning run- just about 8 miles with some faster miles thrown in the middle for good measure.

Friday: Night light trail run 10k. There was a 5k and half marathon option at this race as well. It was SO much fun. I had never run a trail race in the dark before. Everyone was required to wear a head lamp or knuckle lights. The 10k/5k started at 7 pm at Battle Creek Regional Park in St. Paul. I highly recommend it! I'm hoping to have a guest post this week from my friend who made this year's race extra super special, so I'll save some of the details for that one.

at the start of the race

Saturday:  I am not used to running the Friday before a long run (#worthit !)  so my body was especially tired Saturday morning. I ended up missing run club, but I had 20 miles on my schedule, I had to get it done. I decided to bring Matilda for the first 10, come home to fuel up and drop her off, and then do the second 10 with music. Breaking the 20 miles up into two runs really helped me mentally. I don't usually listen to music either so it was a welcome change for the second 10 miles.

Sunday: Another easy run (5.5 miles) with Matilda.

(Um..I guess Matilda's mileage this week was pretty high too!)

Summary: About 56 miles of running, 1 barre class, and 1 complete rest day.

It was another week with a lot of running and not so much cross training. As I approach the final week of hard training before the taper, running is truly the only thing I have time for it seems! I didn't have time for much else in the evenings for exercise, as I had dinner plans with girlfriends both Wednesday night (Trattoria Tosca!) and Thursday night (Bachelor Farmer). It was worth it though- I hadn't seen my college roommate in about 4 years. She's living in Munich now. It was so great to see her and catch up on her exciting European adventures!

What's happening in fitness fashion?
In fitness fashion, I ordered myself another pair of the Oiselle roga shorts in "fast red" with plans to test these out for the marathon. I went with a size medium, but they were much too big! I am so confused, as mentioned in this THIS POST my orange pair is a size medium but when I checked, it turns out my navy pair is a small.

Alas, the "fast red" mediums are just too big. I have to return them. Sad. I had really hoped to have them in time for my 22 miler next week to try them out for race day!

Nonetheless, these are still some of my favorite shorts currently, its just hard to know what size I will be going forward!  If you haven't tried them yet, I highly recommend them. You can often find them on Amazon to avoid shipping (Oiselle's shipping is $5 flat rate).

Well, that's from the Right Fits in Fitness and Fashion this week! Next week will be tough as I enter into my final hard week of training for the OBX marathon, I plan to focus on sleeping enough, stretching, and eating well. Soon it will be taper time!

Fitting Remarks: Tips for Post-Marathon Recovery

Hi all, how's your Friday night going? We are just chilling at home and catching up on some TV.

Not sure if you've noticed, but I haven't written much in terms of weekly recaps, but that's because I haven't really been working out that much. I'd like to say that I'm still recovering- both physically and mentally, but I have really just been lazy. However, I think I deserve a little laziness for a little bit!

I took a week and a half off of running, which is more than I have usually taken post-marathon. I think this marathon was harder on my quads, and I know that it was definitely harder on my morale. I needed some time away from the pounding of the pavement before feeling ready to get back at it.

The week after the marathon:
Monday: absolutely nothing.
Tuesday: absolutely nothing. Got a massage
Wednesday: Pilates Pro-Works 1 hour class
Thursday: C2 vinyasa class at Corepower with Dustin. We were supposed to run the TC 1 mile, but it was cancelled due to the weather (a torrential downpour). It was probably for the best, as I am not sure I would have been ready to run hard.
Friday: absolutely nothing
Saturday: TRX class in NOLA!
Sunday/Mon- absolutely nothing- Recovering from food poisoning....
Tuesday: 1 hour barre class at Balanced Barre The instructor was Jana, and she was great!
Wednesday: Ran 4 miles with Matilda (dinner at Bar La Grassa for Kelly's birthday!)
Thursday: absolutely nothing (work dinner at Rojo)
Friday: 1 hour barre class at Balanced Barre 

I talk a lot about training for a marathon on the blog, but what's it like post-marathon? What should you expect after the finish line is behind you?

Post race at the Flying Pig marathon

• Soreness! Expect to be sore, for at least a day or two. I have an acquaintance who said she wasn't sore at all after the marathon (sorry, I call bullish*t!) Even after my 16th one, I am still sore afterwards. My recovery from the 20-22 milers during training is minimal, but something about that extra 4 miles of the actual marathon makes my legs really sore. But hey, everyone's body is different, so maybe you won't be that sore. Or maybe, you will be really sore (a little more likely), and barely able to walk down stairs! My suggestion in that case is to walk backwards down the stairs. Take the elevator as much as possible. I went with "sideways" down the stairs this time, as my quads were very sore after Flying Pig.
• Depressed... Post marathon depression is a real thing! Even if you had a great race and achieved your goal, you might still experience a little sadness that the whole experience is over, and you might feel a little lost. This is normal. You worked so hard to get to that marathon, and now its over...its a little bit of a letdown. Don't worry, that feeling will pass.
• Still hungry. It takes a little while for your body to adjust after the massive calorie burn of the marathon. Allow yourself a few indulgences, but don't go overboard.
• Tired...Well, this one is obvious. Your body went through a lot, and it takes time for it to recover. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. 

Here are some tips to help with the physical and mental recovery.

• Get a massage! I got one on Tuesday after the marathon, and I think it really helped with the recovery. It was so relaxing and it felt great.
• Take a yoga class. Dustin and I did this last Thursday night, and it helped physically and mentally with my recovery. 
• Reconnect Take some time to reconnect with friends or family that you might have neglected a little bit during your training. Plan a coffee date or a walk with a non-runner friend. Grab a cocktail at a happy hour, without stressing about how it will affect your run the next morning.
• Get some sleep. Take a Saturday morning to sleep in! It has probably been awhile since you slept in, right?
• Plan your next goal race! If you achieved your goal at this marathon, congrats!  You're probably pumped and want to keep the momentum going. Or, if you're like me, and you were pretty disappointed, time to move on to the next one. I think its important to take some time to reflect on what went well in your training and your race, and think about what you'll do differently next time. And then schedule your next race! (My next marathon is the Outer Banks marathon in North Carolina. )
• Ease back into it. Listen to your body, and start running again when you really feel ready.

Remember- you finished a marathon, and should feel very proud of yourself. But give yourself some time to truly recover. I know there are plenty of runners out there who are able to bounce right back, but those people are not the norm...Just enjoy this time, and relax. You've earned it!

Okay I just have to share this picture from Flying Pig...great picture right? But who is that guy on the right?