Day 7, Week 13: I'm so over tapering & I lifted puny weights today.

Tapering.  I don't handle it well.  In fact, I had a tapering tantrum last night.

I don't want to taper and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME

You see, when you get used to running big miles and sometimes fast miles, when all of that running goodness is suddenly yanked out from under you in the training plan, you go through a little withdrawal.  And frustration.

But I was good today and didn't lift my normal heavy Saturday weights; in fact, the barbell is off-limits for a while (BOO).  Instead I whipped out Cathe's ICE series, which is for intermediate exercisers, and wisely chose the workout that sounded the easiest.  So, of course, I chose the Boot Camp Circuit workout because I am a moron.

This workout consists of 6 circuits, each circuit containing one cardio, one lower body, one upper body, and one core exercise.  If you've done any of Cathe's earlier workouts, she definitely makes the exercises in each circuit much easier than she normally would (except, I feel, for the cardio exercises...I found those still pretty intense).  She also lifts much, MUCH lighter than what I'm used to lifting, as you can see from the equipment list on the back of my DVD set:

No 20s? No 25s? BOGUS.

I mean, really--I had no idea what to do with those 5 pound weights.

What are these "5 pound weights" of which you speak?

While I kind of felt like I was wasting my time lifting those lighter weights, I reminded myself that consistency is your workout BFF--I still had to do this workout to keep in the habit as well as to save energy for the marathon next week and allow for some recovery to build strength.  I also loved that abs were a part of the circuits in this workout, unlike the Boot Camp Cathe offers in her Strong and Sweaty series.  That meant no separate abs workout after the weight lifting whereby I have to lay on the floor for 10-15 minutes while I dodge animals trying to play with my mat or lick my sweat.

Speaking of animals, large dog and I have a 5K race tomorrow morning in a town about 45 minutes away, so I have to end this kind of boring and non-funny post now so I can grab some shut-eye. This is so we can get up way early and run 7 miles at marathon pace before the race so we can make the 5K race the end of our 10 mile run on tap for tomorrow.  So I'll leave you with this picture of us from the same race last year, where it snowed the whole time and large dog loved every slippery minute of it:

I'm sure the race will be a great three miles of large dog ADHD trying to yank me into ditches.  Good times.

First some learnings and then I'm going to bed, kiddos:

• Tapering.  Buh.
• Cathe's ICE series is a nice solid series for someone who wants an "entry level" Cathe series whereby they can build up to her heavy weight workouts.   
• The ICE series is also good for exercise freaks who still want to work out like this during a taper when they absolutely shouldn't be doing anything of this sort anyway but are morons.
• How cool is it that Cathe lists the times and needed equipment on the back of her workouts?
• Very cool, that's what.
• It's also cool that Simon is running in a Santa hat tomorrow for our race because, you know...dogs in hats.

Tomorrow's workout:  Already told you it's a 10 miler at marathon pace, but it will be broken up into a 7 and a 3.1.  We'll see if I actually wake up and do those 7 miles pre-race.