OK, just 7 days left until the New York City Marathon and it’s really starting to hit me.
Running was better this past week. Once again, with the notable exception of Monday, the weather was really nice. My legs seem to be embracing the taper.
Weight Check: 167.2, up 2.1 pounds from last week. Ouch. Yeah, I’m still eating like the taper hasn’t started yet. Hopefully I can buckle down this week and maybe shave off a pound or two before the race.
| Day | Scheduled | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 5 miles easy | 5.02 |
| Tuesday | 1 mile warm up, 2 x 3 miles at marathon pace (10:50-11:10/mile) with 5 minutes easy in between, 1/2 mile cool down until I hit 8 miles | 8.01 |
| Wednesday | 4 miles easy | 4.01 |
| Friday | 4 miles easy | 4.01 |
| Saturday | 10 mile long run | 10.01 |
Total: 31.06 miles
Back in the spring, a 31 mile week would have seemed respectable. Now, it’s tapering. Marathon training is serious. (It has to be.)
Monday was one last warm and humid morning. It started to drizzle during mile 3 and that actually felt good, but then it stopped. I’m glad I’m tapering, so I only had to be out there for 5 miles instead or 6 or 7. My legs were still kind of tired from Saturday’s run. It wasn’t much fun, but I got through it.
On Tuesday, the weather was much nicer, cool enough that I didn’t really notice the humidity. My legs felt fine. I hit my pace goals and improved my pace on each mile of the intervals. I was pretty happy with this workout.
Wednesday, it was nice, cool weather. My legs felt OK. I got faster on each mile. It was weird only running 4 miles, though.
On Friday, the weather was excellent again. My legs felt pretty good. Tapering helps. I didn’t push the effort really, but the combination of rest and cooler temperatures resulted in a faster pace. I think I did subconsciously slow down a little on mile 3 after I saw 11:01 for mile 2 and thought that’s probably a little faster than I should be running. Still, I was pretty happy overall.
Saturday warmed up a little bit, but was it still pretty nice weather, cool enough that I didn’t notice the humidity, and there was an occasional breeze. My legs were a little bit more tired than I expected. I’ve experienced far worse, of course, but like I said, it was unexpected. Also, it seemed to come and go, it was worse early, then faded for a while, then came back, and I think that probably explains the changes in my pace during the run. I think my pace was still in about the right range for an easy run, even if it wasn’t as consistent as I’d like. I kept the effort easy except for the last mile.
Somehow I forgot to have a Gu even though I had one in my pocket the whole time. (I won’t forget about my Gu next week.)
Speaking of next week…
So, this is it. I still have a marathon pace run on Tuesday, plus some shorter runs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I might get my October review up this week, but most likely I’ll save it until after the race. I do want to put up a post with my final thoughts before the race.
Oh yeah, and I’m pretty sure next week’s wrap-up will be a little late.