Shamrock Marathon Training - Week 15

Time once again to bear my soul, or at least the superficial surfaces of my brain to link up with Jaime and the gang for Stream of Consciousness Saturday.


Writing this Friday evening, in prep to be totally wiped out and not to much of anything on Saturday. 

Tomorrow morning, I have my 20 mile training run scheduled. For my last marathon 30K was my longest run. This time around I want to follow the plan and see if it results in increased fitness, so 20 miler it is!!

In some ways, I feel ready for the taper. Weekends of forgoing housework in order to get up early and run have started to get wearisome. More from a mental perspective than a physical one.

From a training viewpoint, I don't feel like I've done all that much. Just my standard lunch runs and a bit on the weekend. Of course that's just not accurate. Wednesday evenings for the past 15 weeks have been dedicated to a "medium" distance run ranging between 5 and 8 miles. I've never done those prescribed miles before, and am interested to see if they make a difference.

Am I ready to tackle 26.2 in less than a month? I don't feel like it. Then again, I also think I'm more than capable. I'm not sure how to reconcile these feelings in my brain. Am I under trained? More than adequately trained for the task? I suppose I'll get a glimpse in the morning, and better still in 3 weeks.

Starting tomorrow around lunch, taper madness will set in. The mileage will be dialed back and I'll let my body heal from the past 15 weeks of training. Funny thing, I'm not sure I need it. Easy to say now, I suppose; sitting on this side of the 20 miler.