Tapering

After the monster weekend (Friday: party, Saturday: Disney on Ice, Sunday: Ballet) I was in dire need of recovery, even if it was not running related. I therefore declined to run on Monday morning, which also enabled me to sleep for 8 hours straight, a rather unusual occurrence these days. As I’m tapering for Sunday’s race, the 0 mileage is definitely not a problem.

I’m trying a new tapering method this time. I’m still trying to find the best values for length and training intensity for the last few weeks before a marathon (who isn’t!), and came across this article. They basically suggest cutting the mileage quite radically, but increasing the intensity of the runs. The most radical approach is cutting the mileage by 90% and running the rest at fast interval pace. I won’t try to emulate this, but the plan is to do a tempo run on Tuesday, another one on Thursday, and to rest every other day. If I feel like it, I might run 2 or 3 easy miles on Saturday to loosen up the legs. Who knows, this may well be a stupid way to prepare for the race, but I decided that this half would be the perfect opportunity to test it out. I won’t have too many regrets if the race falls flat, it certainly means a lot less to me than a marathon or ultra. On the other hand, if the experiment goes well I might apply the same strategy for my next big race. Of course what works for a half-marathon might not be such a clever idea for the full distance. Whatever the result, I’ll know more after the race.

So, I did another tempo run today after resting on Monday. Well, resting is relative; I didn’t do any running, but I spent an hour in the gym. The new gym, that I mentioned a few weeks ago, has opened, and my employers are paying half the fee for the first three months as a special bonus, making this a rather cheap option. The trainer, Áine, gave me a set of drills to improve core strength and endurance. Between you and me, I think she's trying to kill me. I did an hour last night, and expected to be really sore in the abs, chest and shoulders today, but I'm fine so far. Of course, the DOMS might still hit tomorrow.

Where was I? Oh yes, today’s tempo run. Those efforts are going very well indeed, every run is faster than the previous one, and they also feel easier. My paces have nearly dropped to the same speed that I had before the ultra, and I wished I had another one or two weeks to prepare for the race, but that’s obviously not happening. I’m quite looking forward to the race. My goal is to beat 1:30, and I’m feeling very optimistic. The fallback target is my half-marathon PR of 1:35:40, and as long as I don’t suffer some serious setback, I’ll definitely beat that. Funny, it cost me blood, sweat and tears to get that time just half a year ago, and now I regard it as a seriously soft target. Times are a-changing.

1 May: 8 miles, 59:27, 7:25 pace, incl. 4 miles in 26:29 (6:37 pace)

Monthly mileage for April: 220