Keeping Myself Busy

As most of you know (because you are either runners or have runners in your lives), when the taper comes prior to a race runners go CRAY-CRAY! Not only are they running fewer miles (as to rest their bodies for the upcoming run) which can cause a runner to go a bit cuckoo on its own, but then add in that they have all kinds of extra time on their hands due to the decreased mileage and this can be a recipe for disaster.

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Let's just look at my training as an example. My peak week, which was two weeks ago, I ran 50 miles, biked 16+ miles and had a strength training workout. This current week, since Sunday, I have only run 7 miles. Before my race on Saturday I have a single 3-mile run left to do. I realize that for someone who doesn't run a lot these numbers may seem high, but for what my body is used to doing this mileage is almost non-existent.

Instead of letting my mind race [pun intended] and come up with all the reasons why my training wasn't good enough, think of all the scenarios that may or may not play out on race day, freak out about the weather/ course/ etc, pack-unpack-and-repack fourteen times, I decided I would try and keep myself busy.

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Some of you may know, but within the last few months I accepted a job doing social media for a company. It's just a part-time gig, but it works perfectly and I am really enjoying it (hopefully they are enjoying having me as well ;)).

One of my roles is to try and revamp their blog a bit. We did some brainstorming and came up with a few blog series that they would like to have, so I have been reaching out to my friends who like the brand to help me out. Well, as you can imagine, I ran through my circle of friends rather quickly so had to be a little creative to find more sources.

Yesterday I decided to do a little crowd sourcing and posted on a couple of my social media platforms to see if anyone else out there wanted to help me out. Little did I know that I would receive the response I would and be overwhelmed with the number of people willing to opt in. In the past 24 hours I have sent over 70 emails to different people with details on the different blog series and how they can help. Now I totally understand that 70 emails will not necessarily turn into 70 blog posts, but something is better than nothing.

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This means that my normal 1.5 to 2 hours a day of work sky-rocketed and I have worked 11 hours in the past two days (and doubt I'm done for today). Again, that may not seem huge, especially when compared to a full-time job, but it sure has kept me busy and my mind off of the race that I am running in less than three days...

Hopefully, this means I am killing two birds with one stone feeding two birds with one seed and avoiding stressing out about the race AND getting some of my future work done before crunch time. Only time will tell, right?! 

How do you keep the taper crazies at bay?