The most exciting piece of news to report is that I've reached the taper period. There are only two weeks left to go, and it's time to cut back on the mileage and let my body heal and build strength. As you will read a little later, it couldn't come at a better time.
Training Recap
The week before last, Week 19, I executed my first-ever 22-mile training run, the longest non-competition run I've ever done. If you've been following my blog for a while, you may recall I had attempted this distance a couple weeks prior and bonked (i.e., ran out of energy) well before completing the distance. It felt good to be able to get that run under my belt. That week was also significant in that I logged 60 miles, making it my biggest week ever. Here's the full recap:
| EXERCISE | TOTAL MILES | TOTAL CALORIE BURN |
| Running six runs, including a long run of 22 miles, two 10-mile runs, one 5-mile Arc Trainer recovery, one 4-mile treadmill recovery, and seven 0.45-mile hill repeats that, with warm-up, recoveries, and cool-down, totaled 9 miles | 60.00 | 4,888 |
| Other one spinning class for 50 minutes | N/A | 319 |
| TOTALS: | 60.00 | 5,207 |
This past week was officially the beginning of the taper period, but it didn't seem much like it. The week began just like any other "step back" week, with similar mileages and ended with an actual half-marathon race on Saturday. I made a few adjustments to get myself rested for the race, swapping the hill repeats that were on the agenda for Wednesday with next week's tempo run and then essentially taking two consecutive rest days, my normal Thursday off-day as well as Friday.
On Saturday, I participated in the IU Mini Marathon in Bloomington, Indiana. The main objective of this race was to gauge my running fitness to get an idea of what marathon pace I may be capable of running in a couple weeks. A couple weeks ago, I had done Yasso repeats in order to get a preliminary read, and they suggested that I could run a 3:10 marathon. At the time I wrote about this, I expressed skepticism that I could run an average 7:15 pace over 26.2 miles, given I had done an 8:03 on my last marathon. The equivalent half-marathon pace (95 percent of marathon pace) to a 7:15 marathon pace is 6:53. By contrast, my best (and only) half marathon pace was 7:38.
Going into Saturday's race, I was confident the increased intensity of my training had positioned me to run faster than before, but I was not ready to believe I could run 45 seconds faster per mile than I had done before. I set my sights on a more conservative 7:15, though hoping I could do closer to 7:10, thinking (correctly, it turns out) that it would put me in the top three in my age group. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. For starters, I did not sleep well at all the night before, which is what I get for being a tightwad and booking a cheap hotel. Secondly, the course was much more challenging terrain-wise than my prior half marathon, featuring a lot of hills. Thirdly, I had been experiencing some pain in my lower abdomen earlier in the week, and it continued into the race, worsening as time went on. Finally, at around the eight-mile mark, it started raining and the wind picked up, further increasing the degree of difficulty. Despite all that, I finished with a time of 1:35:45 for a 7:18 pace, finishing 67th out of a field of 791 finishers and 5th in my age group. All things considered, I'm pretty pleased with my performance.
A 7:18 half marathon pace translates to a 7:41 marathon pace, which is a far cry from the 7:15 the Yassos predicted. Given the circumstances on Saturday, I suspect my true ability lies somewhere in between the two extremes. Right now, I'm leaning toward targeting a 7:30 pace at Boston, which would translate to a time of 3:16:30, over 14 minutes faster than my last marathon. This target will be subject to adjustment, depending upon how well rested I am, weather conditions, and whether my abdominal issues clear up.
Below is the summary of the full week's activities: (NOTE: Calorie burn totals from the half marathon are not included, as I did not wear my heart rate monitor.)
| EXERCISE | TOTAL MILES | TOTAL CALORIE BURN |
| Running five runs, including a half marathon (13.1 miles), one 8-mile run, one 5-mile Arc Trainer recovery, a 45-minute tempo run on the treadmill totaling 5.5 miles, and a 10-minute blast on the treadmill the day before the race to support a carbo-loading technique a friend shared with me. (Not included in the mileage total: a 3-mile recovery walk the day after the race.) | 32.90 | 3,911+ |
| Other not applicable | N/A | N/A |
| TOTALS: | 32.90 | 3,911+ |
Now, I really feel like I'm at the taper! I'll log roughly the same number of miles this week as last, but they will be spread over six runs (as opposed to 4+) and at a somewhat lower intensity. The final week, the mileage from the prior week will be cut by more than half to 15(ish). I'm hoping this will allow my abdomen to heal up.
Fundraising Update
On the fundraising front, the intensity of the past two weeks has rivaled that of my training. I have a lot of people to thank for taking my total from $1,998.00 to $2,722.42, just $527.58 from the minimum fundraising requirement! A BIG THANKS to Paul Ferguson, Kellie Robbins, John Simms, Audra Brake, Becky Brake, Kim Kasenow, Vasanth Murugan, Jerri Ballard, and Brian Hunt!!! In addition to these folks, I made the first of four planned contributions, this one in memory of my late father-in-law, Marvin Lomas, who lost his battle with brain cancer two years ago yesterday.
I'm very pleased with how well things have gone recently, but I have a LONG way go to reach my goal of $5,000. I have a fundraising event idea in mind that I hope to finalize this week, but I'm still going to be heavily reliant upon individual contributions to get me where I want to be ... so if you haven't donated yet, please click here to take a stand against cancer!
This Week's "Title Track"
 | Break A track by Three Days Grace from the release Life Starts Now |
Nice run update, keep posting good run update!!!
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