Sunday, September 24, 2006

Training wrapup

With only a week to go to Wineglass you can hardly call the running I'm doing lately as training but it's still miles on the road and some gentle reminders to the body not to get too lazy.

The work has been done weeks or even months ago and so any running done this week will be mainly to keep my alter ego, Evil Runner, happy. When in heavy training it was always ER who was the 1st to complain and whine about the workouts, early mornings, mid-week runs, the weather, you name it. And now that we're slacking back for the taper, you know who's the 1st to start 2nd guessing and want get one more hard session in, etc well it's ER again! I know he's determined to sabotage me one way or the other and I'll have to tread very carefully and remember that less is better in all things for the next 7 days (except for rest, stress and sleep).

Quick recap of the last few days. Easy 5 mile runs on Friday and Saturday around 8:10 pace with a few strides to stretch the legs out. Feeling good but not great, no spring in my step yet. Total for the past week was 50 miles with an average pace of 8:03.

Today's last short-long run was 13 miles here at home (alone) in 1:45 with a few stops to check on a friends' cats and to refuel my drinks. Finished off the last 4 miles of the run with a mini-progression to mimic my plan for the marathon start with splits of 7:58, 7:49, 7:39 and 7:23. These paces all felt very comfortable and in my easy aerobic range except for the 1st 1/2 mile of the last one due to a continuous uphill climb. The elevation profile of Wineglass with it's gradual downhills should be very conducive to even pacing and so I'm not worried, yet.

Looking forward to seeing Marc again and travelling down with Andrew next weekend. We'll just try not to bore poor Jo to death with all our running talk on the long drive to Corning.

Taper on!

6 comments:

Phil said...

You've done a fabulous job preparing for this marathon. I hope you can keep evil runner at bay for the next week while you complete your taper. If you'd like, feel free to send him down to Arizona for a quick vacation. I'll make sure he keeps out of trouble.

Love2Run said...

Thanks Phil. Evil Runner has been quiet so far but I'm sure he could use a vacation in Arizona to distract him.

Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

Heh Mike, Goodluck at Wineglass. I'm sure you will have an awesome race. You've had a great summer. Man I can't believe its fall already.

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

Poor Jo - nothing like 12 hours in the car with two runners to test her will.

You should be sure to visit the Corning Museum of Glass while you are in town.

Just a few more days!

Olga said...

I've heard good things of Wineglass marathon. And happy b-day to kid!

Olga said...

Did you just get HUGE PR or is it my blurry mind??!!