When there are 4 weeks to go prior to a marathon I'm not one to want to make any serious changes or deviations from my training plan. But unfortunately life happens, deviations take place, and somehow or another I'll compensate, recover, and do well.
With 4 weeks to go to the marathon I've gotten myself involved in a project that has totally inhaled my time. Last week I managed to squeeze in 13 miles, but the week before was a paltry 3 miles, and I felt guilty doing those 3. The only upside is that the project involves a heavy measure of physical exercise, so I had been calling it "cross-training" - except that it didn't help me today.
Today, after not being able to get my last long run in a week ago, and before tapering for the MCM, I got in 17 miles. I wanted to do 20, but the humidity was too much, and more importantly, boy did I feel the effects of not running. The last long run of any significance was 19 days prior, not counting a 6 miler that I got in 3 days ago. My endurance levels seemed to be ok, but my legs were not there. And I'm guessing that it is because they had been on vacation for too long. With 18 days to go, I am going to have to adapt my taper to make sure that my legs don't forget how to run without negating the positive effects of the tapering period.
My point here is that I'm very surprised by how much not keeping up with a 20-30 mile per week routine affected me today. I realize that everybody is different and I am sure that some people, probably most people, are not affected by a gap in their running schedule. But clearly, I am. What I've learned is that I will loose what little edge I have if I am not constantly on top of it.
The 17 miles that I did, albeit in the very, very high humidity of FL, have totally drained my legs. They feel soooo done. I'm going to force myself to do at least a 2 mile run/walk tomorrow, and then step into my regular taper prior to the marathon.
Quick aside: I did my run with bananas and a single gu. I strapped the bananas to my waist belt with velcro cable ties, ate one at mile 4 and the other at mile 12, sucking down the gu at mile 8. Awesome.
I'm jazzed and excited. 18 days to go !
These are notes of my running journey. Hopefully they will be useful or even inspiring to other runners! Scroll down and look on the right hand side for titles that might interest you (Archive)
Good luck in getting in a couple of good training runs before the MCM. As for "tapering": I try to do my last long run about 1 week before the marathon. I used to taper back and not run at all the last week. But, the last couple of years I have actually tried to run the entire week before the marathon by doing a count-down week 8-6-4-2 (even miles, and doing the 2 miler the day before the marathon).
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts - I'm actually feeling pretty good, and more importantly, I'm not nursing any injuries. Hoping to keep it that way all the way to the starting line. Good luck with your running
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