I took today off to rest, relax, get my race bib without having to face rush hour traffic and to take care little chores. This week was my taper week. It looked like this:
- Monday: no activity
- Tuesday: 10 x 400m repeats at 10k pace with 200m rest (includes 1 mi warmup and cool down)
- Wednesday: 4 mi easy pace
- Thursday: no activity
Friday: swimming – 10 x 50m - Saturday: 2 mi easy pace
- Sunday: RACE!
This is what my build up to the marathon looked like by week.
Training went really well. I hit every workout I planned to. I had planned four 20 mile training runs but had to cut one of them short (19.23 mi). I also did hill repeats, tempo runs, fartleks, intervals and race efforts (the Annapolis 10 miler and a self supported half marathon). Though I did more miles and faster paces running in my MCM 10 build up, I did do a fair amount of cross training in my 18 week build (bike riding, swimming and one gym/weight workout). I feel like I am ready.
I am going to try and avoid the pacing mistakes I made for MCM 10 and run at the 8:11 pace up to mile 18 and try to hold the sub-eight minute paces from then on. I will take a gel while walking through every rest stop around my 45 minute mark and every 30 minutes after. I will walk and drink my water through the stop so that I can get my nutrition in and hopefully avoid the debilitating cramping that plague my marathon races. I trained this way and feel like I can return to race pace without sacrificing too much time.
Well I am going to head off to the expo now. Have a great race. I be back to write the race report.
UPDATE: The expo and packet pickup was absolutely packed Friday. I went down at around 11:00 and had to wait in serpentine lines for about a half an hour in the pavilion across the street from the armory to get my bib. I was drinking water constantly and there were no port-a-potties. I just had to tough it out. Once I got my bib I had to go to the Armory to enter the expo and get my tech shirt. The security had a line and another 20 minute wait prevented me from bladder relief. I did however have a nice conversation with a sweet couple from Michigan. So, my warning to marathon packet pickup people is to not bring a bag going to the Expo, it will cause you to wait in an extra line. Don't drink water while in line you may not have time to get to the rest rooms past security in the Armory. And, the bags for your bib and the tech shirt pick up is in the left rear corner once you enter. Good Luck!
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