One Week!

How does the date of the marathon always sneak up on me? It has. Here I am one week away, and feeling unsure and not quite ready and needing to work a little harder for this race. At the same time, I'm feeling relieved and ready to take a little break from training. Taper madness they call it.

All things considered, I've had a good training cycle for this marathon. I've missed only very few workouts. My mileage has been a little higher than ever. I do believe that I peaked just a little early, though. I was probably in my best shape ever in early January. I definitely haven't improved since then. Hopefully, I haven't gone too far backwards.

Last week was pretty normal. I got in all the key runs, even though I was traveling. I did a 3x1 mile workout that I always do a week and a half out, 5:44, 5:45, and 5:41. It was probably a little harder than it should have been.

Today, I did a 13 miler. I wanted to run some miles at marathon pace just so I'd remember what the pace felt like when I was relatively fresh. It was very weird. I was going to run 5 easy, 5 at MP, and 3 easy. I ran 5 easy. Then, when I started the marathon pace miles, the effort was more difficult than it should have been. Then, after 5 MP miles, I had to take a quick bathroom break and I started running easy. But, every time I looked at my watch, I was running at marathon pace. I ended up running the last 3 at marathon pace, and it felt like easy miles. Really weird. I hope I'm able to relax like that on Saturday.

So, yet again, I'm feeling fat, out of shape, and I have no confidence that I'll come anywhere near sub 3:00. Taper madness. Why does my mind do this to me?