Weekend Recap

After getting reassurance from my PT that nothing is wrong and reading the article about "taper tantrums", I have focused on NOT obsessing over every little twinge and trying not to worry that I am, in fact, falling to pieces two weeks before the marathon.

I seem to have been successful because I was able to run Friday evening (5K) and yesterday morning (8K) without any pain...well, except for the AGONY caused by my brand new pair of shoes. They're identical to the pair I've been wearing for the last seven months and yet the suckers nearly killed me Friday evening. My arches were abslutely aching with pain and I had to keep stopping to give my feet a rest.

Reluctantly, I laced them up again yesterday morning and was pleased to discover that the discomfort had almost completely dimished. Phew!

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of meeting Mel from 2nd Chances (and her very-much-non-runner boyfriend) at a BBQ that a mutual friend organized. We had some good running and non-running related conversation, lots of laughs and a lovely time. Great to meet you, Mel!

Naturally, we called it a night early knowing that we would be up with the sun for a long run. The taper distance was supposed to be an "easy" 25K, but Mother Nature had other plans. When the alarm went off at 6:30, it was pouring rain. In hindsight, I should have just gotten up and done the run, but instead I went back to sleep until it stopped, which was around 8:00AM. I was out the door at about 8:30 and knew I was in trouble as soon as I set foot outside.

At this time it was only 23C, but felt like 31 with 83% relative humidity. The sweat would not evaporate off my skin and no matter how much I drank, I could not cool down. My pace was slow, I stopped a lot and all-in-all, it was a crappy run. I was dragging my feet and gasping for air by 10K and desperately wanted to throw in the towel. Somehow, I trudged through another 6K or so, the last 3 of which were all uphill towards home. U-G-L-Y.

So my last "long" run before the big one certainly didn't go as planned or hoped, but what can ya do? At this point, I know I just have to trust my training. It would have been nice to bang out another 20+ this week, but killing myself for another 8 or 9 kilometres would have done nothing for me. At least nothing positive!

I'm really hoping it cools off in the next couple days so I can get in a few decent runs this week.

14 days to go!