Well, as they say, the hay's in the barn. I finished Hal Higdon's Advanced 1 Marathon Training Program for this Saturday's marathon! I only have 2 rest days and a Friday 2 miler to go! I guess I'd give myself a grade of a B for this training. I dug deep for dark solo long runs starting at 3:30 a.m., and I ran 10 mile pace runs with the stroller. But I got to where I could not do the middle of the week "hard" run (either hills, tempo, or speedwork), so I started to skip it. I did that at least 4 times for various reasons (isn't it easy to find an excuse when you really don't want to do something?). I did finish the last speedwork today and nailed it (4x400s), but the thoughts of doubt still loom in my head from the missed workouts.
Then this past week my whole family has had the stomach bug! I was planning on doing some core work with Jillian Michael's DVDs, but when the bug hit me a week ago I lost my appetite for days and had no energy. I played around with some of the mileage for the first week of the taper, fitting in short runs when I felt well enough to do them, skipping them when I did not. I could not even look at the healthy food I had bought to eat and instead ate Saltines and drank Gatorade. Now with only 4 days to go, I am trying to hydrate and resume eating.
Then there's the weather report--lots of rain forecast for Columbus, GA the morning of the marathon. Time for me to start mentally preparing for running in the rain. I remain hopeful that I can meet my goal, but I also know that there are a lot of things I can't control, and this is one of them.
More after the race!
Ooh man, stomach bug during training. That's rough! But you'll be fine. You're so experienced, it would take a lot to throw you off.
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