7/5/09 - Last week of before taper

This week is going to be my last week of real training, and then I begin to rest up for the marathon!! I can't believe how fast time has flied. It seemed like only yesterday that the marathon was "months away." Its now exactly 3 weeks away, and with a 2 week taper, I have one week of hard training left. At the same time, my body feels about ready for taper. My legs feel dead and heavy all the time. My quads and butt have been really sore, and I can't wait to run with "fresh" legs.

Yesterday I ran the Moraga 4th of July run. It was a 5 mile run, and like the 10k a few weeks ago, I just treated it like a speed workout. I went 28.23 or something like that, which is averaging 5:38 per mile. I paced it terribly and ran the first mile in 5:18, which I paid for at the end of the race. It was a fun race though and although it would be interesting to see what I could do if I was rested, it was good speed work for the marathon. I finished in 6th behind a bunch of campo cross country runners. The results are here: http://www.campotrack.com/july4PAGES/july4results5mile2009page.html

Tuesday, I ran my 13 mile medium long run. I ran a 1:34 or so which wasn't bad considering that I ran 23 miles 2 days before. I also ran it in the middle of the day and it was really hot out. When I run, I usually rub this stuff called body glide on certain parts of my body. It looks like a deodorant stick, but it basically prevents chafing. I rub it on my toes, along the seams of my shorts, my inner thighs, my armpits, my nipples.. and basically anywhere where there is friction and where there can be chafing. I forgot to apply it for this run, and even worse I ran with my shirt off. The combination of heat, lots of sweat, and friction was bad news, and my armpits were raw and slightly bloody at the end of the run. I didn't really notice till afterwards, but it burned in the shower... oops!

Today was my long run. I ran 18 and it was painful. My bum was really sore, and my legs felt like i had weights strapped around them. I am going to need to take tomorrow off and recover if I want to do anything productive this week. The good news is that I only have a few more hard runs before I begin to back off of the mileage. My legs hurt even as I sit here right now... but its sort of a good pain. I wore my HR monitor for the run and was surprised how low my HR was. My average heart rate was 136, and the highest was 164. The run was 18 miles and took me 2 hours, 18 minutes, 56 seconds.

This week was a total of 53 miles
Monday - rest
Tuesday - 13 mile medium long run
Wednesday - 5 miles on treadmill
Thursday - 8 mile tempo run
Friday - 1 mile easy/ race warmup
Saturday - 8 miles total (5 mile race: 28.35 time)
Sunday - 18 mile run (2:18.56)