Taper

With three weeks to go, it's taper time. At least for me. This is my first marathon training cycle that I've actually made it to the taper without being sick and injured. (Yes, sick and injured.) Granted I have three weeks to go, but with my last 20 miler behind me I feel good about my odds.

It's funny how training cycles go. This marathon was planned during my pregnancy with Emily, but after Providence this past May...I was seriously considering switching to the half. I just felt wiped. Emily isn't the best sleeper, and I had been surviving on 4 hours of sleep a night. The lack of sleep was getting to me. Thinking about training for another marathon so soon made me exhausted. Then AM asked if I was interested in doing a long run. I was hesitant, but decided that if I survived a 20 miler with her, I'd suck it up and run the marathon. Well, that first run went well. Two others have gone well too. Now I'm excited to race in three weeks. I'm excited to start tapering while healthy. And just generally feeling good.

My last 20 miler was this past weekend. AM and I wound up running 7:40 ish pace. It was gross out. Humid and unseasonable warm, but we got through it. I definitely didn't feel as good after this run as I have for the others, but I'm blaming the weather.

I'm looking forward to tapering. I'll be doing a 20% reduction in miles this week and another 20% next week. My peak mileage week was 53, which isn't a ton of miles, but I did have several weeks in the 50 mile range.

Now I just need to survive the bugs that a certain preschooler is bringing home with her. Seriously, we're drowning in snot right now. Everyone in the house is sick (except me). I fully expect to get sick, but given that I've made it to taper time I'm okay with that. I should be able to get the extra rest that I need to help me fight whatever is causing the river of snot.

Completely unrelated to running (but still fascinating), doesn't it seem like children were designed to spread yucky bugs? Kaylee is getting better at sneezing into her elbow, but I still get it in the face from time to time. And Emily? Well, if she sees me coming with a tissue she immediately starts wiping her nose on anything in sight (and then proceeds to play with the snot). It's glorious.

Since I'm just throwing randomness about, I received a "regret" email from the BAA today (meaning that my qualifying time was not fast enough to get me a number for Boston). I was a tiny bit disappointed, but given that I barely qualified in the first place the outcome wasn't surprising. I am impressed with how the BAA has handled registration this year. I actually received an email and the email stated what the cut off time wound up being for my age group (3:38 if you're interested). It's nice to know what to shoot for (and in this case 3:38 is actually slower than what the qualifying time will be for next year). I receive the news at an interesting time. Three weeks to another marathon that could potentially qualify me for Boston 2013...