The Taper Begins

The twenty-milers are done!

We ran our final twenty mile run on Christmas Eve, in cold temperatures and a gusty wind that nearly blew my feet out from underneath me on Allen Parkway. I also under-dressed - wearing just shorts and a short-sleeved shirt in 40-something degrees (minus the wind chill factor). Around 8 miles, I thought about detouring past the car to pick up a fleece. Later I was sorry I didn't.

I had also decided that I had been finishing the long runs with a little too much energy at the end. I know that sounds crazy but I finished my 18 and first 20 miler fast and without that "concrete leg" feeling. About halfway into the last 20-miler, I SERIOUSLY picked up the pace. At one point I looked down at my Garmin to see I was trotting along at a 7:06 minutes per mile pace and decided that was too fast. But I finished mile 11 in 8:11 minutes, and miles 12 and 13 about 7:40 minutes apiece.

Needless to say, my legs were a lot heavier from mile 15 thru 20!

John wasn't too happy with me at the time, but afterwards agreed that it was a hard training run -- and it really should pay off in the marathon.

I have some thoughts on how John might perform on the marathon, but I'm afraid to put them out there. Running is a very mental thing; running one's first marathon is extremely mental.  His legs absolutely have the training and the conditioning it will take to get him to the finish line. It's going to be a matter now of how he expends his energy out on the race course on January 17 and how he manages the mental part of it.

The training part is almost over, after all. Now it's a matter of focus, discipline and carbs.

Comments

[Junie B]

I wish I would have known about your blog before now!! Good luck on Sunday!!! Who knows maybe I will 'run' into you!!!