Let The Taper Begin

From the week after my last race (Rock and Roll Half Marathon, Sept. 2, 2007) until today I have ran 635 miles. I really did not get dialled in and hit my stride until the middle of December. In January I had weeks of 32, 50, 52, 52, and 33. Last week I did not hit the planned 45 miles, but it was not a bad thing. I look at it as a week of extra taper time. My body did not respond well to running so I took 3 days off from running.

This weekends long run showed the dividends. I just ran 18 miles on easy trails, but the speed and ease of the run shocked me. I was able to cover the distance in just over 3 hours. I ran the last 2.1 miles at a pace under 9 minutes per mile. Maybe not fast for most, but fast for me, especially after 16 miles.

Now I will officially begin my taper for Holiday Lakes. I am only going to run 30 miles this week, with a 12 mile long run on Saturday. I will rest on Friday and Sunday. Next week I will run 3 on Monday, 6 on Tuesday, and 3 on Thursday. It is going to be hard to not run, but the excitement of running and the extra sleep should leave me more than rested and ready for the race. I feel that my fitness level is growing and my weight is slowly dropping.

This morning I ran a 3 mile loop around my subdivision. I started off at a 9 minute per mile pace and was laboured for the first mile.  Once I was warm I fell into an 8:30 pace with no problem and I feel like I could have held this pace for quite a while. I want to run a half marathon this spring to gage how better off I am now that I was last spring. We will see how that fits into my training, schedule, and wallet.