Well its early Sunday morning and instead of filling my face in preparation of a long run, i'm relaxing with some sore legs instead. I'm not concerned though, its just muscle pain.
Its all good though because I ran my long run yesterday. I ran 11k Thursday, 6k Friday and 32k Saturday. Normally I would take Friday off but I felt good enough to run so I did, giving me the option of doing my long run either Saturday or Sunday.
During my last 2 runs I've been experimenting with eating a little more before the run than I would have before and I think its been working. Yesterday I had 2 bagels at 7am, a bowl of oatmeal at 9am and 6" sub at 10am. At 11am, I started my run. Yep, I know, sounds like a lot but when you're going to burn 2000+ calories over the next 3 hours it doesn't last long.
Unlike my long run last week, I never had that little voice telling me "you can't do this" in my head this time. During the 18k after my 12k warmup that i had to run at marathon pace (5:30/km - 5:40/km) I was actually smiling to myself thinking "holy crap, I'm doing it". Of course that was when I wasn't cursing the wind. I finished the 32k in 3:10:51 and I was so pleased with that result because on Friday I had taken the scenario for my best possible times for each section of the long run and added them up and come up with a time of 3:10. I didn't beat it but being only 51 seconds slower is close enough for me. I burnt 2078 calories and emptied 2 bottles of gatorade during the run.
My coach believes that a sub 4 hr Bluenose marathon is obtainable for me. For the first time, I believe him now.
I'm now at the point that all marathoners dream about, the tapering phase of training! That's the point where both the intensity of the runs and the total weekly distance run decline until race day. It feels awesome to be at this point and to have made it without injury after all the IT band crap I had to deal with from October to January. This week i only have to run 53k with a 24k long Sunday run, the week after is only 40k with a 20k long Sunday run.
The plan for my final 2 long runs is to go into Halifax and run a portion of the Bluenose to get a better feel for that hilly first half and to work on pacing. I feel if I can get the first half finished in 2 hrs or less, then I'm a lock to finish the second half faster because of the lack of hills. I'll also run without my mp3 player because i won't be wearing that for the Bluenose .
Three weeks from today and we'll be on our way to the race!! Can't wait! Now that the tough training is done, all I can hope for is that the weather will co-operate and give us all a perfect day to run, cloudy and 10C. Is that asking for too much?? How about 12C?
Oh crap, I almost forgot the most important thing. I'm losing one of my toenails, or at least a piece of it, a badge of honor among runners. Its the big toe on my left foot! The original damage occurred back in February when i was doing one of my long runs in shoes that were too small. For some time I've noticed a "spot" on that toenail. Not the whole thing but just the right side of the nail, where it was crammed into the shoe. Well yesterday the nail split on that side where the bruise was. YES! A war wound! Now I just hope it doesn't get caught up in my socks! lol
Onward and upward!
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