2 weeks until the mini...

With two weeks to go until race day I have reached the taper period. The taper period is the time when a runner let's their body recover from the rigors of training so that legs will be fresh for the targeted race. The running schedule of an athlete during the taper varies as people have different philosophies. I am coming off of my second left ankle injury of the training season so I will eliminate all speed work from my workouts for the next two weeks.

So what has brought me to this point?

I started base training for this race in October (more on this later). Since then I have logged hundreds of miles, worn out two pairs of shoes, and endured tempuratures as low a 5* below zero. You may have followed along by reading my updates over that time. My high water mark for weekly mileage was 42. My fastest mile turned out was in the low 6 mins. Over that time I have dropped 12 pounds.

Catching up on the last two weeks...

I have had a strange couple of weeks. I worked in a cross training day on a bike on Monday, April 7. Followed that we 3 days of 5-6 miles then finished up with a five miler and six miler on the weekend. A blast of cold air moved into the area on that Sat and Sun and I just was mentally in tune with running in the cold those days. I ran those weekend miles too fast and paid for it later.

Monday, April 14 was a rest day. I followed the rest day up with interval training on Tuesday (intervals are speed training that involve periods of running slowly followed by bursts of speed). I woke up on Wednesday with a little discomfort in my left ankle. I mowed the lawn Wednesday night which takes about 1:30 to finish. My ankle felt worse on Thursday. No running for me on Thursday or Friday. Saturday I was scheduled for my last double digit run on my training schedule! I went out for my run with a starting temp of 57* and spitting rain. I logged 11 miles in 1:33. The run gave me a lot of confidence that my training went well and leaves me happy to begin my taper!