I’m supposed to be tapering. Correction, I am tapering. It’s just not working. My chronic insomnia has worsened and I’ve been up until at least 3am and as late as 5am every night for the past three weeks. I’m freaking exhausted. I’ve aged 3 years. The final taper is supposed to make me feel rested. Strong. Ready to go. Instead I’m ready to go to bed for a sleep to rival Rip Van Winkle. My weary body aches all over. A cold virus invaded and won’t go away. It’s the mild kind of cold that doesn’t require sick leave but zaps all my energy and slows all my runs. I’m popping vitamin C and D, but the pills aren’t magically curing me. Add to that my constant infusion of desserts instead of food with actual nutrients and I’m a mess. I bought a new pair of jeans the Friday before Thanksgiving and they no longer fit. Correction, I can get them on but sport an awesome muffin-top and can’t sit down. How is it possible to outgrow a pair of pants in eight days!?! Self doubt took hold after that disastrous half marathon and hasn’t let go. The fatigue and ballooning body are further messing with my already-off-the-rails mental game. I need to find the marathon motivation movie to beat all marathon motivation movies. Someday I will master this taper business. Until then I have six days to pull myself together.
Title Reference: The Bangles – Manic Monday. From the album Different Light. 1986.
For the cold, try oil of oregano drops. It tastes terrible, but is the only thing I have found that works. (It kept me reasonably healthy all last year, and I worked with a plethora of germy kids in over 50 schools!) If you have chronic insomnia you’ve probably already tried Melatonin, but if not it’s worth a shot. Doesn’t work super well for me, but you never know.
Fingers crossed things start getting better asap!
Thanks for the tips! My officemate was taking some sort of drop … I think it may have been ginger.
Classic case of Taperitis. You have all the symptoms. The only cure is running 42.2km. You’ll sleep beautifully after that.
I was afraid of that. At least it isn’t fatal. With my doubleheader I’m still two weeks from a cure.
Neocitran – causes drowsyness and helps treat cold symptoms… I have the same “dessert eating” problem that you do – not sure how to cure that one!
This always works for Husband as well – I’ll give it a try tonight. I don’t love the taste, but I love warm liquids.
My heart goes out to anyone with insomnia, especially people who manage to still train (for a MARATHON even!) while in the throes of insomnia. I have never experienced real insomnia, only a few sleepless nights here and there, and my husband and I refer to me as a champion sleeper. I’m not trying to rub it in, of course, just trying to illustrate how far from my personal experience your situation is to me. Knowing how much I treasure being able to sleep well makes it all the more horrifying to think of how you must feel being up so late and still having to pull off all the other functions of the day and more, just like everyone else. Hmmm, seems to be somewhat of a common thread among bloggers I know, too, come to think of it. I hope the cause of your flare-up truly is “taperitis.”
P.S. I had to look up the word “tuque” on wikipedia from a couple postings ago and it made me smile. I am from North Carolina originally, but living in Boston for the last nine years, and where I come from we actually call winter hats like that “toboggans.” Weird, huh?
Thanks so much for your kind words. This is a bad flare-up, usually I can manage it okay (I’ve had years of practise). Insomnia does make for more time to write though, so I’m not surprised I share this with other bloggers.
p.s. I love that you looked up tuque! I should link the word as it is probably unique to Canada. There is much debate over the spelling toque vs tuque, I’m curious which side wikipedia supports. Toboggan is especially weird to me because that’s my word for sled. So I’m picturing a very odd looking hat
.
Yep, even in NC we (really, it’s “they” now to me!) call a sled a toboggan, so I can only surmise that “we” started calling the hat a toboggan as a shortening of something like “tobogganing hat.” Which is ridiculous logic, now that I think of it–”hat” would do nicely as well….
I learned to not call it that after moving away, except for in the “hey, guess what we call that down south” manner.
The Wikipedia entry begins, “A tuque (Québécois French: tuque) is a knitted cap, originally of wool though now often of synthetic fibers…” but later makes reference to toque as such: “The word is etymologically related to the name of the chef’s toque, although it is sometimes incorrectly spelled toque instead of tuque (still pronounced /tuk/) by assimilation, or occasionally touque, although the latter is not considered a standard spelling by the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.”
I knew it *must* be a Canadianism before I looked it up, which is why it made me happy. I have this weird affection for (but not really much personal knowledge of) Canada and have a very positive stereotype that all Canadians are nice. It’s good to be in the know with the lingo.
Hang in there. All the insomnia and sickness now will ensure that you get lots of sleep in the key last few days before the marathon.
I have resolved to sleep in at least twice before the marathon – now to get my brain and my sinuses to agree. I’m easily bought, so maybe I just need to implement a reward system.
I feel for you, and suffer the same, maybe not quite as bad anymore, but there was a time where I’d punch holes in the drywall above my bed (teen years)
I generally do not sleep weell enough for the amount of marathon training I do. I imagine it affects me somewhat, in fact for Goodlife, I did not sleep well leading up to it and was exhausted afterwards, whereas othermartahons I have slept better and not felt as bad after, so ya, we need our sleep.
I have used Neo Citron in the past as well, you just can;t rely on it that’s all.
Good luck!
Yeah, I always notice a difference as well. There was a recent RW article about an elite runner who sleeps very little. I don’t know how she does it. I’m also not as bad as I once was … my ppoblem is in falling asleep, not staying asleep, and most days I can fall asleep before 1 am. Just every now and then it gets bad, usually stress related (not running stress, life stress). I’m trying to be Zen. I’ve given up on the Zen run, but my new goal is the Zen sleep.
Maybe do a short pace run (3 miles). that could shake you out of it. When you leaving for DC, I am taking a Thursday evening flight. You will enjoy MCM, but look out for the hills in the first few and 5 or 6 mile..
Driving Friday. Went for a slow 5K tonight and will try another 3 miles or so Thursday. I’m definitely jazzed for MCM, although the forecast isn’t pleasing to my cold-weather loving self. A group of us are getting together for Sunday dinner after the run (location to be determined – any suggestions?) — if you are free and want to hang out with a north of the border crew let me know.
Ah, I see it is supposed to be 16C high, 6C low. Thats what it was like the last few years if I recall. I wore singlet and shorts both days.
Thanks for the invite, I may drop by if i’m not hobbled by thon no. 2. What area are you guys staying in (hotel, subway stop that you’re near.) and I probably know a few restos in the area.
Good god woman! Pull yourself together!
Also – I took some ColdFX in the days preceding my race. It’s possible that it was all psychological (as I’m sure are your symptoms) but it totally worked. I felt better almost instantly.
I’m hooked.
Thanks Don Cherry.
I need someone to slap me out of it, dramatic movie style. I’m all for placebo pills instantly fixing my psychological cold … I type as I shake more vitamin C into my mouth.