Taper Madness

on Sunday, September 16, 2007 at 7:58 PM

Saturday: Was going to do 10k time trial around a local track and had every intention of doing it until I got there and noticed the ridiculous amount of wind that was present. I had some serious doubts of trying to complete it which were subsequently confirmed after trying one lap. Huge wall of wind that I just didn't feel like wanting to fight. I ended up doing 4x1 mile at LT pace with one lap walking recoveries and then 1 more mile at Marathon pace.

Today: 16 miles on the schedule which I finished in about 8:20 pace or so. I forgot to recharge the batteries in my Garmin and it shut off part way through the run so I'm not entirely sure of the distance or pace. My shins and calves were really sore after the run today. I've been using my new shoes and I think that my legs haven't quite gotten use to them yet. It was really cool this morning and I had to run in a long sleeve shirt for the first time since last spring.

Total for the week was 39 miles. Upcoming week is quite pleasant with only 4 days or running

Tuesday: 7 miles including 8 strides.
Wednesday: 8 miles including 3x1600m @ 5k pace
Friday: 5 miles recovery including 6 strides
Sunday: 12 miles

As for the taper madness, today marks 14 days to the marathon which means I can start looking at the weather forecasts for race day on Accuweather. Here's the first (of what will probably be many) weather prediction. Temperature is looking good for race day.


4 comments:

yumke said...

Yeah, I felt the wall of wind too. I think the surrounding buildings around the high school helped to shield a little.

Weather looks great, but you never know, huh? Have a nice resting up week.

Colleen said...

Are you getting excited? Nervous? Or just ready to get the show on the road and race already!?

Question for you- are you going to race the marathon with your Garmin? I'm still up in the air about this and curious to hear what others are doing. If you do wear it, do you turn off the autolap and just hit the lap button yourself at each mile marker?

jen said...

Nice job on the LT/Goal Pace workout. I kind of like not having a race to do the weekend he suggests, because you get to pick your own workout for once. :)

Good job on the long run too. Ice your legs and stretch, but don't worry about the soreness, I'm sure it is nothing, its just trying to psych you out for the race. :) Taper madness is upon you!

Weather forecast looks pretty nice!! Fingers crossed that it doesn't change much.

Arcane said...

Yumke/Jen: Weather now says some wind and the temerature high has shot up to 23C. Oh well it was good while it lasted.

Cuckoo: I'm feeling a little bit of everything. I'm probably not as excited as I should be though.

I don't typically use my garmin during races and for marathons will not even wear my HR monitor/watch. I have a little nike watch with a 50 lap timer that I use just for marathons and I'll hit the lap button after each mile/km marker. I find that the best way to do it since it forces you to run each mile separately to try and maintain pace. You could probably do the same with a garmin.

You should turn off the autolap thing though especially with Chicago because of the first little bit underground and the portions where you run through the tall buldings. You'll very likely lose signal at those points which will throw the measurements out of whack.

temp