Definitely Tapering

Taper madness has not set in yet, at least not enough for myself to notice, but I can sleep in every morning and still get the run done before work, it is bright outside even by the time I leave the house and sore legs are a thing of the past.

I'm brimming with energy but can’t use it. If someone forced me to run 20 miles right here and now I’d be out on the road before they had even finished their sentence.

I took it easy on Monday, just 7 miles, only to find an email from the coach on my return asking me to do something even easier. I should have checked my email the night before, my bad. I did what he asked on Tuesday instead, and it was the strangest “workout” ever: 2 miles warm-up, 1 mile walking (!!!) while visualising myself on the last miles of the marathon, then an easy run home to cool down (from what?). The walking part felt as weird as expected and during the visualisation I could not help but notice that I was trying to see myself in the middle of a very urban environment on a very grand street with thousands of spectators by the side, while in reality I was walking on a totally empty, tiny road beside a beautiful, hidden lake in the middle of the Kerry wilderness. The contrast could not have been greater.

I followed that up with 6 more easy miles this morning. I started the first mile at 8:00 pace and just kept running easily, only to find on my return that the pace had dropped steadily so that I ended up with an average pace of 7:30. It shows how careful you have to be in the taper, especially so as I ran again wrapped up in several layers with a heavy jacket on top to simulate warm weather in case we get that in Vienna. I did notice that the HR was much lower than on a similar run last week, so maybe that’s actually having an effect already.

I am really confident of running under 3 hours in Vienna, in fact I have my sights set a good few minutes below that now. However, there are two things I am worried about. One is the potential for a really hot day; the last week they seemed to get over 20C degrees every day, and for someone who is used to running in 5 degrees that’s a big difference. The other thing is being sick. There has been “something” going round in the family, Niamh has been coughing for over 2 weeks now, Lola is on antibiotics as we speak, Cian is off school feeling awful and Shea had a sore throat, just like me. This has been going on for over two weeks now, and while I can’t tell any negative influence on my running from looking at pace, heart rate or perceived effort, I am worried.

Then again, maybe all those negative thoughts are merely the taper madness slowly taking hold. I'm still confident. My form points to a time well below 3 hours, so even on a bad day I should be able to crack that particular nut.

4 Apr

7+ miles, 54:53, 7:47 pace, HR 139

5 Apr

5 miles, 46:02, 9:11 pace, HR 130
    including a mile walking

6 Apr

6+ miles, 45:27, 7:30 pace, HR 159
    wrapped up in layers for heat acclimatisation