Preparation is Key

We will just call this "The time I prepared for New Years Eve like I did the US champs."

RUNNER SEASONS:

This doodle shows the 5 weeks a year professional runners get to live like a semi-normal human (in purple). The “lame season” is when training is so hard, the hours outside of training are exclusively devoted to recovery. Thus lame season=live-like-a-robot season.

Unfortunately the holidays fall in the "lame season" but just because you live like a hermit during lame season, you can still afford to have a few days of fun. It just has to be carefully executed. Like my dad always says: "Don't do two stupid things at one time. That would be too stupid."

That's why I began preparations for my NYE Bourbon Street New Orleans vacay 3 weeks in advance.

I entered lame season 10 pounds over weight. No big deal. My weight is almost completely determined by alcohol consumption. For some reason calories are not created equal and 1 calorie of beer=100 calories of snickers bars. So I cut out alcohol completely. Even a nightly glass of wine gets me in trouble with the scale.

Bourbon Street does this really unhealthy thing called 3-for-1 hurricane specials plus beads. That means you get 3 huge sugary alcoholic drinks for the price of 1 huge sugary alcoholic drink. Plus, beads! There is a 100% chance you will not be a functioning human and a 79% chance you will be diabetic by the end of the night.

Hurricanes are not good for my "don't do two stupid things at one time because that's too stupid" life plan. So I made sure I did everything else right.

In the 3 weeks leading up to NYE:

I cut all alcohol to get my weight regulated.

I ate plenty of good fruits and veggies. Mostly because I love plenty of fruits and veggies

I cut my caffeine addiction. It is hard for me to stay up past midnight, so I need the help of a stimulant. I made sure my body wasn't used to caffeine in order to get a bigger bang for my buck with my 6pm pre-party cuppa joe.

Also, because it is hard for me to stay up, I made sure to have a surplus of bedtime hours. Extra sleep to make up for my soon to be deficit.

Day of:

I forced myself to sleep in.

I made sure to prehydrate all day with water and Gatorade

I took a pre-party nap

I ate consistently throughout the day. All healthy, easily digestible food. No szechuan beef!

I stretched and massaged my feet to prepare for dancing.

I brought fashionable, functional, comfortable dancing shoes (heels are the devil!)

I drank a pre-party coffee to get me jazzed and keep me jazzed. I need to stay awake for New Year!

I shaved my legs for the occasion. Weird, but runners do that pre-race. And pre-party apparently.

Post-party

I made sure to eat after to maximize recovery.

I drank a Gatorade to replenish electrolytes.

I drank a protein shake. I don't know why I did this. Probably because I was hungry and thirsty and this quenched both simultaneously? Or it seemed like a good idea after my intense DancePlyo session.

I did a "cool down"—which consisted of watching Lord of the Rings to make sure I went to bed without any hurricanes left in the system.

And there you have it! With preparation I had a perfectly executed party plan and the next day felt good enough to continue the grind of training. Plus I wasn't even hungover for my annual hangover recovery breakfast!

I am a champion.