Taper time

Phew! Another 75 mile week and the taper is upon us. Seems a bit strange talking about a taper when my training has been so truncated but I know that cramming in one more intensive week would just leave me with not enough time to get rested up for marathon day and I still need to follow the tried and trusted three week route.

Had another good week though and am looking forward to cutting back the mileage and hitting my workouts hard. Next week I'm cutting down to 55 miles with one workout (Turkey Trot 8k race) and an 18 mile long run with the last 8 at marathon pace.

Marathon pace? Good question! I have some ideas but am meeting up with 'Coach' Tim tomorrow night and that will be one of our main discussion points!!

Anyway, this is how the week panned out-

Workout 1 (goal 3k in 10:20, 400 jog, 8*400 in 75-78 with 1:00 rest, 400m jog, 2k in 6:40)

Hit up CC track very early in the morning to bank another workout. Had some company in the form of Pete who was doing his Yasso 800s.

I had to run harder than I would have liked for the first 3k. the goal was 10:20 and I was playing catch up straightaway as my first quarter was 90 seconds! Still asleep clearly! Pretty much got it back on track to hit 10:23 by the end. Jogged 400m and then launched into 8 400s with a minute recovery. The goal for these was 75-78 seconds and this part of the workout went well as I hit 75,75,74,75,74,74,74,75 without ever really straining, just trying to keep it as smooth as possible. After another 400m jog it was time for the final 2k. Goal was 6:40 and I did 5 solid quarters around the 80 second mark to hit 6:41.

All in all a pretty decent effort. Legs felt good and I didn't need to go to the well like I did during Saturday's workout!

Included 4*100m strides during the warm up and down

Workout 2 (goal 10 mile 'staggered tempo' with 4 miles in 6:00, 2 in 5:45, 2 in 6:00 and 2 in 5:30)

Did this whole run in the fasttwitch 3, they will definitely be my marathon shoe! 4 mile warm up and then 10 mile 'staggered tempo'. Goal was to hit the first 4@6 minute pace, then 2@5:45, 2@6:00 and finish with 2@5:30. Although the quads felt pretty heavy from the last few days' miles, I was able to get this done and then some without ever really crossing that red line.

Hit 6;01,5:53,5:56,5:57
5:37,5:41
5:56,5:56
5:31,5:28

Long run (18 miles in 2:03:03 (6:50 pace))

Hit the roads at 5 to get my long run in early this week. Ran to work taking in the Turkey Trot course en route to check that out again before next week's race. Felt decent throughout . Most miles were in the 6:40-6:50 range. Quads were trashed by the end but no wonder having run 34 miles in the past 24 hours. Last mile (admittedly downhill) was 6:20 even though legs felt very heavy and unresponsive by this point. Only one more 'long run' to go!