2 Weeks and counting

This marks the end of my first week of the taper. I went out and ran "only" 12.8 miles today. I averaged my anticipated marathon pace of 10:30 per mile and that included stopping to walk as I drank my watered down Gatorade and ate my fig newtons. I also ran the last half faster than the first, the last quarter the fastest of all four. It was a good run, and will be my last double digit run before the race. I originally planned 10 for next weekend but since the Bolder Boulder 10K is on Memorial Day I am going to use that as my long run next weekend. I'm looking forward to the Bolder Boulder. My company sponsors any employee who wants to run this race, we have 15 of us signed up this year in 3 teams. I am in considerably better shape this year than last and think I have a real shot of taking 10 minutes off my 1:04:02 time last year.

For the first time in 3 weeks I did not commute to work on my bike. I have put a self-imposed limit of 15 miles or less per ride, 2 times a week, during my taper. As much as I want to get out and do more I do not want to get sick or overdo it with only 2 weeks to go until the marathon. I did have some quality runs this week though with a good 5 mile tempo run and a speedwork session of 800s. After doing 1600s for most of my training the 800s felt REALLY short.

Week 3: 23.6 miles, 12.8 mile long run

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