Happy Monday!
Congrats to everyone that raced this weekend! I won’t give it away, but I saw on Instagram that a BUNCH of PR’s fell. Great job!!
I am now in the second week of my taper… and I am just terrible at this. Not only did I skip a run last week for no reason at all, but my paces were WAY TOO FAST! I also ate total garbage (seriously, Captain Crunch Cereal). I am supposed to be taking it easy, eating well, hydrating, and I totally botched those goals. I need to get a handle on myself!
I did have a great weekend paddling the Kansas River. I’ll post about that later, but here is a picture from where Frank and I camped Saturday Night.
Last Week:
Monday: Yoga
Tuesday: 5.1 miles – ended up race pace, was supposed to be easy + Yoga
Wednesday: Last speed work! 7 miles (WU+4×800+CD) + Yoga
Thursday: Rest Day
Friday: Yoga <- Why didn’t I run my 6 miles? No idea!
Saturday: 4.1 miles with run group (too fast) + 4 miles recovery pace
Sunday: 13.1 miles LSD <- ended up race pace…
Total: 33.3 miles
As you can see those paces were just too freaking fast. I am hoping that a week like this didn’t burn out my legs for the race. I feel good, but running too fast in training just wastes energy.
The speed work on Wednesday was really fun. In high school, I was a sprinter. I ran the 200 and the 400, but my coach always wanted me to do longer distances and pushed me towards the 800. Unfortunately, I hated the 800. It is a real suffer distance. So, pushing through the suffering by doing some 800’s was really good for my head.
The long run on Sunday was a little weird. Manhattan, KS has had a lot of flooding lately, so the main trail that runs through town was very muddy. There was a section that was completely washed out and I had to climb around the mud up to some trees, but I still ended up pretty messy. I set out on the run hoping to keep things around the same pace I usually do my long runs (9:35-9:45/mi), but just could not slow down. The miles kept ticking by and I just kept getting faster. Overall, my pace was 9:01/mi, about 5 seconds per mile faster than race pace. Luckily I felt good and fresh, so maybe this whole taper thing is working.
So, another week is in the books! I am going to try to be better this week, especially about food and water. I’ll be running my last double digit run (woo!) before the marathon and then it’s basically done. I really only have a few miles left before I walk to the starting line out in Denver.
How was your training this week? What is you next big race?
She Runs the Wasatch 
My guess is that you ran fast because you ran less. Or maybe the training has just made you faster? Let’s go with that one. 🙂
My eating has been REALLY good — when I’m sick, I tend to eat really clean, because I don’t want to get sicker. Except for our night out, where my husband dragged me to Uno, someplace I really didn’t want to go (and frankly wasn’t really good).
I didn’t have the pizza, which maybe was good, although based on the bread for my sandwich and my husband’s garlic bread, I’m not so sure.
Good luck eating better and slowing down this week!
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Nice job on eating well. I’ve been a lot better this week… maybe because I spent Monday night with some stomach aches due to my poor food decisions. I certainly hope the training has made me faster. I’d be cool with that! 🙂
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I tend to run fast during taper too…well, I usually don’t have that much extra energy in week 1, but by week 2/3 I definitely do. The training work is done by this point, so unless you’re being reckless or tiring yourself out, I don’t see the harm in going a little bit faster, if that’s what your body wants to do. In fact, I always try to do my first long run of taper at race pace (or add race pace intervals) anyway. They say you should decrease mileage but keep intensity so I’m sure you’ll be fine – that extra rest day probably helped. Taper is about maintenance, not training, so as long as you’re taking care of yourself why not indulge in some of the rewards (extra speed) from all those hard weeks of training?
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Thanks for the encouragement! I hope I stay feeling speedy. It will make this whole sub-4 thing a whole lot easier! 🙂
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Don’t worry about skipping a run in your taper – repeat after me: There is nothing you can do inside a 10 day window that will help your race. You have been busting your ass. You will have a GREAT day in Colfax!!!! Reel it in on the paces, eat all of the healthy food and I have a suspicion that you are going to make that course your biatch 🙂
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I hope so! I’ve been having dreams about this race and I gotta say, I am pretty nervous. I know it wont be easy, but still… I am scared. I definitely have been slowing down on those paces, so hopefully I head in to the race well rested.
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The race is so close now! I know I’m late on this comment and it’s even closer now…. ahh! You are going to have such an amazing day. If your long run *below* race pace felt good and you didn’t feel completely drained after I am envisioning GREAT things for you on race day!!!!
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I hope so! This week was a little less than stellar, so I guess we’ll see. I am planning on going for the sub-4:00 by running with the pacer. I guess if it’s too fast I’ll back off, but I think having someone there to keep me from throwing in some random weirdly fast mile, I should be ok.
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