Marathon Training w/e 21st Sept - the taper

Two weeks to go before the race is always the worst period for me. The hard training is done and as I start to back off I invariably feel rubbish with heavy, unco-ordinated legs. This time was not much different apart from the blessing in disguise that was last saturday's sore adductor. That forced me to take it very easy for a few days and shifted my focus away from how my legs were feeling to making sure I was pain free.

The last real workout before the marathon was done on thursday, 11 days out. After a good warm up a mix of MP and some faster running with a total volume of about 25km was designed to remind the body what a hard (but not exhausting) effort is like and give a good amount of time for supercompensation before the race. Sunday was 5x2km run at marathon pace to keep familiar with the race rythmn.

Mon 35 mins easy
Tue 45 mins moderate and finishing at a steady pace
Wed 50 mins including 7x200m fast
Thr 92 mins including about 8km of MP followed 5km of 10k pace efforts
Fri Rest
Sat 50 mins incl. 6x200m fast
Sun 15min w/u, 5x2km MP, 15min w/d

So just one week to go now. This is familiar territory. Just easy running with a few fast strides to keep the CNS awake and a few kilos at race pace on wednesday. Making sure I'm fully hydrated and fueled up goes without saying and I will be spending some time rehearsing the different race scenarios in my mind so that as the race unfolds next sunday I will have been there before and can react automatically.