Training Recap - It's Taper Time

Yesterday's long run was the last long run of Seattle Marathon training. You know what that means - it's taper time! Even though I know I get anxious and bored during the taper, this has been a long time coming and I'm ready for a break in long run mileage. Adding the Big Sur 21-miler on April 29 means I ramped up mileage sooner than I otherwise would have for Seattle and kept it there until now. Here was my week.

Sunday, May 27
Planned: 10K Race
Completed: 2.25 mile run warm up + 10K Race
I ran the Earthquakes Challenge 10K and have a new PR of 56:39. I've already gone on and on about my excitement for this one, but if you want to know more check out the race report!

Monday, May 28
Rest

Tuesday, May 29
Planned: 4 mile run
Completed: Rest
A few spots in my foot and ankle were very tight and slightly sore after the 10K, so I forced myself to rest extra before this weekend's long run. I really wanted to join a friend at a new-to-us running club this day, and even had clothes with me at work to meet her, but I didn't go. Sad.

Wednesday, May 30
Planned: Core Chaos Class
Completed: Core Chaos Class
This was a tough one, much more challenging than last week. Highlights included lots of walking lunges with weight, going forward and backwards. Bridges, hamstring curls on the stability ball. We ended with a round the instructor called the 'Pyramid of Pain.' It began with one exercise, then kept building until we did all 4 exercises. It looked like this:

Round 1 - 50 seconds push ups
Round 2 - 40 seconds push ups, 50 seconds plank
Round 3 - 30 seconds push ups, 40 seconds plank, 50 seconds squats
Round 4 - 20 seconds push ups, 30 seconds plank, 40 seconds squats, 50 seconds jumping jacks
Round 5 - 10 seconds push ups, 20 seconds plank, 30 seconds squats, 40 seconds jumping jacks, 50 seconds burpees

It didn't sound that hard at first, but I definitely felt it by the end. Very tiring, especially after everything else we'd already done earlier in class!

Thursday, May 31
Planned: 4 mile run
Completed: 3 mile run
The soreness and tightness in my foot had not gone away, so I kept it short and easy at 3 miles. I did some running, some walking to try to loosen it up. I was so happy to get out there because I hadn't run since Sunday, so I didn't even care that I was moving so slowly. Beautiful day.

Friday, June 1
Rest

Saturday, June 2
Planned: 20 mile long run
Completed: 20 mile long run
This was it, the last 20 miler before Seattle! I had a rough run and never found my happy pace, but I pushed through. I can't even place why I felt so crappy. My calves and foot felt like they loosened up after a couple of miles, I had Nuun and plenty of Clif Shot Blocks, and it was 80ish but I didn't feel overheated. I didn't change anything in my food and hydration routine. This is actually very similar to how I felt during the Chicago Marathon in 2010 when I had such a hard time. But what can you do, right? Let's hope that rough 20 miler was the bad one, and the marathon is the good one!

We took a new route along the Los Gatos Creek Trail, starting at Blackburn School in San Jose. We headed along the trail toward Los Gatos, and when we reached a fork around mile 7 we took the no bikes part of the trail to the left. That turned out to be the hard choice. The path took us along a trail run through trees and then to a steep and long uphill. There were plenty of amazing vistas to keep us occupied, but I'm feeling that segment in the legs today! We took a steep downhill into a park, where we found the main trail and took it back to San Jose. It was a great choice for our long run, a new route with lots of bathroom and water support along the way and many other people out being active.

Pre-run at Los Gatos Creek Trail

Today, I spent a lot of time resting and recovering. Nothing like a little elevation, compression via my new ProCompression marathon socks, and Ben Affleck.