Taper Time 2012

As much as things change over time, some always stay the same.  Here are some:

• Before every marathon, I feel like I should have done more/better/harder training. 
• I check the weather forecast at least 3 times per day.
• I always get nervous about tapering down my training.

This is my last 100 mile week, and it's just barely going to be 100. The last time I ran less than 110 miles in a week was the middle of July, so it's always a scary experience running so much less than usual.  The inescapable feeling is always that you're slowly but surely getting out of shape, no matter how crazy that might seem.

This morning I did one of my standard last workouts: 10k on the track, alternating each 1k between fast and "medium".  Today I averaged roughly 5:00 pace for the fast k's and 5:40 pace on the slow ones, with the total 10k being 33:16.  I believe this is the first time I've ever broken 34 minutes in this workout, so I'm taking it as a good sign.  

In the end though, the marathon is an entirely different beast than shorter distances.  While it's nice to know that I'm probably in close to PR shape for 10k, how I'll do in 9 days at a distance over 4 times longer is still a bit of a question.  In the end I take confidence from this being my 3rd marathon in the last 12 months - I have a lot more experience than I did this time last year.  That plus the cycle of long run workouts I've done makes me feel pretty good about where I'm at.  This is what that series looked like, in all of it's glory.

• 11 weeks out: 26.2 miles at 6:07 pace
• 9 weeks out: 22 miles with 18 miles at 5:46 pace
• 7 weeks out: 24 miles at 5:56 pace
• 5 weeks out: 24 miles at 5:51 pace
• 3 weeks out: 22 miles with 20 mile race at 5:45 pace 

So here we go! I for one am getting very excited for marathon time.