Less than a Week until Marathon

Yesterday was my last long run before the Gate City Marathon.

A quick review of my training progress. Most of the yellow you see at the bottom of the graph is not missing the distance by a mile or two, it's missing the planned distance by many miles. Such as planned 10, ran 3. I've been fairly good with the long run goals, though the 15 mile goal post took a few tries to cross.

Green = Run Completed; Yellow = Less than goal miles; Red = Did not run; Blue = More than goal miles

Honestly, I was beginning to get worried about the race, I haven't run very far in a while, could I still do it. My 12 mile taper run was a complete failure, I got 2 miles and gave up. I realize this is taper talking but knowing and feeling are different.

I spent a weekend doing math, because for some reason math can be comforting. This is the breakdown of when I need to cross each mile or loop to hit my goal times. Since I'm switching to 3:1 intervals, I also calculated out how slow my run can be and still hit my goals. I used the Strava calculator for the mile markers and then math for the loop times.

Miles times and loops on left, interval times on right

For Mother's Day I joined a friend and ran the Nancy Mother's Day 5k. It's a smallish race and had many walkers. While there I bumped into a few more people I knew. My intention was run the race easy, as I was going to run an additional 5 miles after.

My bib plus a new recovery drink I tried. 

I ended up with a 5K PR and came in 4th for my division!!!

I was able to talk while running during the entire race, and I still had enough energy in me to run 5 additional miles at faster than marathon speed!

Yesterday was the confidence boost I needed before the marathon. My primary goal for Sunday is Finish with a Smile!