4 days to go until the Rocket City Marathon and my legs are finally starting to feel rested and recovered. I have two more short runs to to do of 3 and 2 miles and then it will be race day.
The days leading into this event are always filled with second guessing - even if the training was executed you have no reason to second guess. My goals for this event are to race smart and trust my training. By racing smart it means going out slow! I think if I do this I will be able to hit my goal time of 3:25.
Last minute preparations like picking up a new stick of body glide and some race fuel need to be taken care of, along with making sure all the race wear is ready to go.
Forecast is calling for a 40% chance of rain on race day - I'm hoping it's wrong or it changes!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Almost there...
The Rocket City Marathon is quickly sneaking up on me. I've only got a handful of runs left before the 12th is here. I haven't been feeling the best on my runs lately but I've been trying to stay optimistic about my chances to run a PR. I know I've hit all the important long runs I set out to do which are the most important when prepping for the marathon.
In all of the endurance sports I've done there's always this grey area between the end of your hard workouts and the actual race called taper. More than likely I never feel good during the taper (rest period), until maybe the day before the actual event or even the day of the event. My body seems to go through a restless stage during this period, where it feels like it should be working hard because that's what it's been doing for a while. It always seems to work out though, but is frustrating non the less when I felt better the week I ran 50+ miles than this week where I'm only running 25 or so.
I guess I just need to take my own advice on this from when I was a rowing coach. Rest, Hydrate, eat well and have faith in the taper - you'll feel good on race day, who cares what your workouts feel like today.
In all of the endurance sports I've done there's always this grey area between the end of your hard workouts and the actual race called taper. More than likely I never feel good during the taper (rest period), until maybe the day before the actual event or even the day of the event. My body seems to go through a restless stage during this period, where it feels like it should be working hard because that's what it's been doing for a while. It always seems to work out though, but is frustrating non the less when I felt better the week I ran 50+ miles than this week where I'm only running 25 or so.
I guess I just need to take my own advice on this from when I was a rowing coach. Rest, Hydrate, eat well and have faith in the taper - you'll feel good on race day, who cares what your workouts feel like today.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
30 weeks.
The start of this week marked 30 weeks until Ironman Coeur D'Alene. My "official" training plan was not supposed to start until 24 weeks out (Jan 11th) but I simply cannot wait any longer. I miss the pool and the long bike rides. All of the running for the Rocket City Marathon that I have been doing the past three months is really starting to wear on me. So I tacked on 6 weeks to make my "official" plan start this week. I can really take my time now and build slow easy mileage, I think this will pay off in the end and hopefully aid me in avoiding any type of over-use injuries by going to hard to soon. The extra six weeks will essentially be a scaled back carbon copy of the original first 6 weeks that were supposed to start Jan 11th.
Today I got back in the pool for the first time since probably August. The workout was 1,600 meters broken up into 300 warm up, 4 x 50 drill/swim, 6 x 100 @ moderate intensity, 4 x 50 kick, and 300 cool down. I didn't have any trouble finishing the distance but I certainly am not speedy in the pool right now. Later I'm going to give my revamped tri bike a spin for an hour and start working on dialing in the fit so that it's 112 mile worthy.
I'm in taper mode as far as the running goes. Rocket City is in 11 days! I had a good 12 miler yesterday where I was able to run about 15 seconds under my goal pace very comfortably. I've got an 8 miler this weekend with a few shorter runs in between. Here's hoping the five 20+ mile runs I did in Oct/Nov pay off in those last 6 miles. Which I believe it will as long as I don't get rabbit feet. I'm certainly more mentally read for Rocket City than I was for the Philadelphia Marathon last year. I did 4 out of 5 of those long runs solo, and the last two were 21 and 22 miles respectively for good measure.
Today I got back in the pool for the first time since probably August. The workout was 1,600 meters broken up into 300 warm up, 4 x 50 drill/swim, 6 x 100 @ moderate intensity, 4 x 50 kick, and 300 cool down. I didn't have any trouble finishing the distance but I certainly am not speedy in the pool right now. Later I'm going to give my revamped tri bike a spin for an hour and start working on dialing in the fit so that it's 112 mile worthy.
I'm in taper mode as far as the running goes. Rocket City is in 11 days! I had a good 12 miler yesterday where I was able to run about 15 seconds under my goal pace very comfortably. I've got an 8 miler this weekend with a few shorter runs in between. Here's hoping the five 20+ mile runs I did in Oct/Nov pay off in those last 6 miles. Which I believe it will as long as I don't get rabbit feet. I'm certainly more mentally read for Rocket City than I was for the Philadelphia Marathon last year. I did 4 out of 5 of those long runs solo, and the last two were 21 and 22 miles respectively for good measure.
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