Is It Reefer Madness?? No, It's TAPER Madness!!

And y'all? I am losing my ever-loving mind.

When I first started my marathon training, I had some trepidations, just like any other sane person who signs up for this race.  For instance, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to reach the mileage on the long runs.

But I did that run. Yay, me!

And then came the reality.

No, no, the REAL reality.

Now that I've done all the long runs, even the 20 miler (!), the mileage is backing down.  This is a good thing since I have been training for races since December.

And now?  I literally don't know what to do with myself.

After Saturday's run, I chatted online with TriGuy who has been away on business for the past ten days.  (Lucky guy gets to come home to the insanity today.) I said that I was feeling antsy, and that maybe I would clean. I know. Utter madness.  Ultimately though, I came to my senses.

Still, for the rest of the day I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to be doing something more.  Then 8:00 p.m. hit.

And just like that, I was exhausted.

It was a wild Saturday night.

Monday night was my second rest day and I was bored, so I picked up my beautiful guitar  that has been gather dust since oh, June?  Of 2012.

Ok, so in my defense, my shoulder was messed up and it would really hurt when I strapped on the guitar so I didn't play while I was going through PT.  

Which I stopped in the spring.

And then I was, you know:

Anyway, I tuned the guitar (after looking up what notes the strings are), and plunked through some chords.

April was not impressed.

Tuesday night I got to run again, but it triggered another thing has been bugging me over the past two weeks:  I've been plagued with mysterious pains.

First, I was worried I had a stress fracture in my foot. Then, my hip was driving me crazy. Today, my ankle is clicking.  I realize there is a mental aspect to this but I'm also trying to be smart-yet-cautious (that's an expression, right?)

So I've iced.

 I've foam rolled.

 And I've lain on a tennis ball to stretch out my iliopsoaz...es.

The ball feels that big.

Oh, and now I'm starting to have crazy dreams.  I'm going to consider that just part of the process.

So I guess all in all I feel ready for race day.

I just hope that little tingling in the back of my throat isn't the start of a cold.

Questions:

1.  If you do races, do you get crazy too? How do you deal with the madness??

2.  Even if you don't race, what do you do to make yourself feel normal when things get wacky?

UPCOMING POSTS: SUMMER RACE REPORTS, LONG RUNS, RUNGER (RUNNING HUNGER)

I'm linking up with my most favorite writers' site this weekend, Yeah Write!  Click the button to get to lots of awesome blogs!