Philippians 4:13

Day off for taper.  Spent the day with the family...church, shopping, organizing and declutering the house after Christmas, movies, games...fun!!!  One week to the race!

First, a shout out to two buddies who ran spectacular races this weekend in Orlando at Walt Disney World.  Pat Bragassa, my running partner here in IF, ran a 2:38 for 6th overall and 1st Master...awesome.  Sergio (sflores on the blog) ran an amazing 1:15:19 at the HM for a top 10 finish and new PR!  Congrats guys to very strong winter races!

Start of taper week, so this week with be front end loaded in miles and pace then backing off to keep the legs fresh.  On the menu today...tempo run!  2 miles easy warmup, then 5 mile tempo.  4 miles at 5:42, then the last mile at around 5:20.  1 mile at slow MP (6:22), then a cooldown mile for a total of 9 miles in 55 minutes.  Tempo felt good, controlled, working hard but not laboring.  A good sign for Sunday's race.

Oh yeah...Go Ducks!

4:30am...at the gym for another TM run in my taper week.  Met Curt dark and early and chatted a bit during the run.  1.5 miles easy, then 6 miles at MP, the last 3 at goal MP or better (6:03-5:36). 0.5M cooldown for a total of 8 miles in 50:25 (6:18 average).  Felt nice and easy once I woke up!

4:15am at the gym for my last "workout" run before the marathon (only 2 more runs before hand...5 miles tomorrow and 2-3 miles on Saturday).  2 miles easy, 4 miles at MP (last mile sub 6:00), 1 mile cooldown in just over 45 minutes.  Everything felt good for the run. 

Unfortunately my son woke up twice in the night throwing up so I hope he feels better before we travel to Arizona and I hope I don't get whatever he has!

5 miles on the TM at the gym this morning around 4:20am.  Nice and easy taper run in 35:23.  Nothing special, just getting the legs ready for Sunday's race.   No run tomorrow, traveling to Phoenix and hitting the expo in the afternoon and looking forward to enjoying the warm weather!

No run today, my traditional day off before a marathon.  Travel to Phoenix today and hit the expo this afternoon to grab my race stuff and check out the running gear.  Hope to run into PowerBar folks and Josh Cox to say hi.

Getting antsy for the race, thinking strategy all the time now...but can't wait to get in the 70 degree weather this afternoon (it is a ice rink here in IF right now!).

After a delay with the flight yesterday, we got into Mesa about 2.5 hours late but were greeted with 75 degree weather!  Headed straight to the expo to get race stuff (bib #9!) and check out the wares.  Unfortunately, got there too late to try and catch Josh Cox to say hello.  Went to dinner with the kids at Dave and Buster's so they could have some fun and made it to Rachel's house that evening.  Thanks for hosting us, Rachel, you guys are the best!

3.5 mile run around Fountain Hills with Rachel this morning enjoying the 50 degree sunny morning!  3.25 miles easy then some striders at the end (27:30 total time).  Feeling pretty good, getting a little antsy for tomorrow after going to the expo last night but ready to go!  Now for a day at the zoo with the kids and some relaxation tonight before the race!