Monday, May 22, 2017

A Combination of Unfortunate Events



I knew that the past few weeks would be rough. 


  1. I was scheduled to have my cycle start in the days preceding the half. (I am currently being outvoted as to whether this counts as a true period. I maintain that it's regular, and that it is blissful because it's two days of spotting then done. The Team says nope, spotting doesn't count -- and sadly, the gynecologist agrees.) This would mean a bump up in water weight. Which... Just because I know it's going to happen doesn't mean that I have to like it or accept it.
  2. Tapering was to begin three weeks before the half. Reduced workouts in an effort to keep my legs fresh. I disagreed with the Dietitian's timing on this one, but she's a runner, and the physiotherapist agreed with the timing, so I grudgingly went along.
  3. To also try to stay fresh and go into the half ready, the Dietitian was urging me to make more of an effort on the food game; "Nutrition is a thing!" she said at the last appointment. So I was trying to eat at least a little closer to what my phone said I was burning. 
  4. And then, in the final step of roughness (pun possibly attended), I broke my toe in spectacular fashion. No high-impact cardio the week before the marathon -- so although I'd planned on barre and some short runs during that final taper week, those were thrown off the table.
A combination of things that were guaranteed to drive me up the wall -- and then a water weight bump on top of it that I simply could not control. And no cardio to try to combat the anxiety from having to eat more.

But it turns out that what is worse than PMS/cyclical water weight fluctuations is that combination of taper weight gain and PMS/cyclical water weight fluctuations. 

The Dietitian had cautioned me a while back that tapering would be hard. 

The tiny, insignificant detail (cue "Love Actually" moment here) that she left out was to caution me about the weight gain that apparently was common with tapering. I'm not blaming her -- I'm sure that it had never crossed her mind, because to most people, a weight gain of 2 to 4 pounds is not cause for alarm.

But when I'm already expecting a bump with my cycle AND THEN IT KEPT GOING. 

Yeah. 

That was not expected. Or welcomed.

I think in the back of my head, I knew it was coming. I'd remembered reading somewhere that runners usually saw a weight gain during taper week. For whatever reason, although weight-related things usually stick in my head, this one seemed to take more of a moth approach, and flitted back out. 

Until 48 hours before race day, when I went into an absolute panic over the number on the scale. (On the upside, at least I'm not the only one?)

And I started spinning. 

Why wasn't the cycle gain following what it always did? What the hell was I doing wrong? Were five days of no cardio seriously having that bad of an effect? Wasn't lack of cardio supposed to lead to weight loss, since my muscles weren't supposedly retaining water for repair? And seriously, I couldn't have eaten that much, and even though I wasn't as active as I had been, I wasn't going over what the phone was saying -- or even getting close. 

Then it came back (and I started Googling): This is a thing, and it's a thing that I can't control, and I may still be panicking, but it is not time for drastic actions. 

Lesson learned: Bodies suck, sometimes. Water weight sucks, always. And even knowing what's coming doesn't make it easier to tolerate.

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