TexasLindsey

4 miles at 6 pm.  It was dark.  Splits (8:47, 8:43, 8:37, 7:50)

My first marathon is now less than a week away!  I'm in the final week!!  I can't believe it.  When I signed up for the race today, the organizer said a marathon is really a 6 mile race with a 20 warm-up. 

I'm thinking that I'm probably capable of a 3:45 marathon based on my paces for my long runs--if I don't have any injury with my IT band.  I'm not sure about 3:40... would be nice to BQ, but I'm not sure if I'm there yet.  I think I'm going to go out with 8:30 per mile being the plan.  I worried about being overly ambitious and being disappointed... I've worked so hard... and I've had this goal for 2.5 years... I'm just so scared it's going to be a let down.  I should just say that if I do it in under 4 hours, I will be happy.  That was my goal at the beginning of all this... it's only recently that I've started thinking a better time would be possible.

Wanted to run today... but my husband had to go into work at 5 am so I couldn't in the morning... and then I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon, which sucked up all the babysitting time available to me for the day. 

Feeling very guilty for not running. 

7.6 miles at 6 am.  This taper is driving me CRAZY!!

My watch wasn't charged so I don't know the pace.  It felt challenging... like as in I couldn't catch my breath... and I think it was about a 9-9:15 average pace.  This freaked me out because a 9 pace shouldn't feel challenging at this point!!!  

I spent the whole run trying to figure out why I was feeling this way... maybe I've lost aerobic fitness from running less during the taper?... maybe I'm taking too many days off during the taper?....  maybe my sports bra was too tight? It felt very tight...  maybe it's anxiety about the marathon?... and if nerves are bothering me now, how much worse are they going to be during the actual race??...  maybe I didn't eat or hydrate enough yesterday?...  I notice my lower back feels like it has a pinched nerve everytime I run lately - maybe there's something wrong that is making it difficult for me to run? -OH NO! Maybe a back problem will ruin my marathon??!!    But then again, no watch... so maybe it was faster than it felt.    

I will say this for the taper:  I'm seeing some improvement in how my legs feel.  My left achillies tendon starts out most runs feeling tight but it goes away during the run, which I think is an improvement from where it was prior to the taper.  Knees feel great, whereas before the taper they were starting to bug me.   No IT band problems (but that never popped up until I've gone at least 17 miles). 

Here's my plan for the rest of the week:  (By the way, thank you ROB MURPHY for the taper advice!!)   I'm going to run a 5-6 mile tempo tomorrow... maybe a mile warm-up followed by some sub 8:30 miles.  Friday off-day.  Saturday I'm going to run a 2 miles at goal marathon pace which I think should be 8:30.  Sunday is race day.  Weather is supposed to be perfect.  Morning in the 40's or 50's and high is in the 60's.  

5 miles at 6 am. It was windy (11 mph) and in the 50's or 60's.  First mile warm-up felt really sluggish.  Then 4 mile tempo - marathon pace.  Splits (10:29, 8:24, 8:34, 8:22, 8:01)

At one point in the run, I was thinking it was feeling difficult ...but then I realized I was going uphill against the wind at an 8:30 pace so I decided to cut myself some slack. I think yesterday's run when I was freaking out about my preparedness for the marathon, I must have been going faster than I realized... I was just in panic mode because I'm nervous.  So today I've been thinking that I just need to calm down and get my game face on.  It's amazing how much your mental state can affect your performance.  Physical fitness is only one part of this sport... another big factor is mental.  I need to really work on my confidence these next two days before the marathon... I've done all the training I can do at this point... right now there's no point to worry if it was enough ... if it wasn't enough training, the time to analyze what I should have done better is after the marathon. 

I'm still trying to figure out what to wear in cooler weather.  I wore a long sleeve tee today... not good.  I was HOT.  I'm hoping this is the temp for the marathon.  If it is, I'll wear a tank and shorts... but I'll start out with arm warmers.  I hope it's not as windy though.  One thing that did work out today is that I wore a headband over my ears... not for the cold but for the wind.