Zero Weeks Left

Almost, Almost Time

The last week before a Marathon is terrible, at least for me, and a huge mental challenge.  You want to do all you can to ensure a good race, but all you can do is wait.  You might think all this free time would be great (now that you are only doing about 25% of your typical mileage) but it drives me nuts.  I get bored, go out more, drink more, oversleep; my schedule is just all sorts of out of whack.  When I go to bed I'm just not very tired (presumably from the lack of running) so I toss and turn a lot.  Not to mention over thinking about the big race.

To make matters worse a few of my aches and pains that popped up in the middle of my taper are still there, so to lessen the risk of injury and complete the goal of the taper (that is, to get to the race start rested and healthy) I modified my last week of training a bit.  For my final 5 day countdown, I am going to rest-crosstrain-rest-rest-RACE.  The work is done, resting a few extra final days should have little if no impact on my fitness, and you should always err on the side of caution, especially in the final week!

“There is no such thing as over-training, only under-resting”
             -  Deena Kastor, US Women’s Marathon Record Holder