Into the taper

Today's workout: rest day

Self destructing iLUV iPhone armband

My vacation is over but I'm still feeling the benefits of a good eight days of running. While I was off I ran 30 miles and much of that was done on challenging terrain. I'm six days away from my next race, the Marcy Mazzola Foundation 5K, and now in taper mode. After ten hard miles over the weekend and Friday I decided to take my usual rest day today and then use Tuesday through Thursday for my final training. I'll rest this coming Friday and Saturday and then race on Sunday. I'm planning to do an early street run tomorrow on a predetermined course and I'll set my target for a fairly aggressive pace. On Wednesday I'll do a treadmill run with inclines for my last hill training exercise and Thursday will be my last run of the week. I ended up buying the Garmin FR60 and I hope that it comes soon so I can familiarize myself with it before the race. Between the treadmill, my Garmin 50 and my iPhone armband it's been a bad month for running technologies.

Soggy taper

I really blew it by acknowledging my incredible luck with the weather in my last post. My window of opportunity slammed shut yesterday when I decided to forgo my early morning run in favor of a city run later in the day. Had I got out at 4:00 AM on Friday I would have avoided the rain that fell over the rest of the day. Plan A, a 7:30 run in Central Park, was washed out with the wind and rain as were Plans B & C to run at lunch or before I left for the day. Plan D was the treadmill at home but I'd conceded to a rest day by dinner time.

The reason I wanted to get in a run yesterday was to complete my tapering for my race on Sunday. I considered just skipping today as well to go into the race with plenty of rest. It was either guilt or good strategy that got me out this morning for a short but brisk run. I figured that anything under 20 minutes would have minimal impact on my readiness for tomorrow and I set out with the intention of covering a couple of miles at a leisurely pace. Like last Monday's long run, I felt very strong so I went with that and pushed harder covering a little over two miles in the high 8:00's. Helping that along was a steady rain that started about halfway through the run. By the time I made my way home it was pouring and though I found it a little hard to see I didn't experience the disorientation I felt the last time I found myself in that situation.

I don't know too much about the course we're running tomorrow so I don't know what to expect for surfaces and elevation. I know that Eisenhower Park has some hilly areas but I don't know whether they are on the race route. I'm surprised with all the resources available to map and share courses that the LIRRC has not done this. I'll find out tomorrow and deal with whatever I encounter. I'm hoping for cool weather and a flat course. A little less rain would be nice too.

8K's a week

It's getting down to the final days leading up to my 8K race on June 7. It's hard to believe that it's already June 1st. You wouldn't know it this morning with temperatures in the 40's in the suburbs east of NYC. It's too early to count on the long range forcast for next Sunday but the race starts at 9:15 AM and I'm hoping the humidity will be relatively low at that point.

I've decided to taper my workouts this week, starting yesterday with a shorter (but faster) 2+ mile run. I covered the distance at an 8:50 pace which compares to the 9:07 average I ran in May. Knowing that it would be short I kept up my speed throughout the run and benchmarked distance from the Garmin against known waypoints on my route. I saw that the Garmin was undercounting my progress so I ignored the readout and just followed the route I'd Gmapped prior to the run. In all, the Garmin was off by 5% and I manually adjusted the watch so it should be accurate now. I followed my run with some time in the pool where I did kicking exercises that, combined with the cold water, helped my quad soreness.

This morning I did 22 minutes on the elliptical as a weekend recovery workout (totaled 12.5 miles between Friday and Sunday). Tomorrow I plan to do a weekday run outdoors using the vest and head lamp I borrowed from AG. I'm taking off Wednesday so I hope to do my last long run before the race and follow that with a rest day on Thursday. Friday morning I hope to do a relatively short city run with AG to finish the taper and rest on Saturday.

Tapering on

A couple of weeks ago AG asked me about my "taper plan" for my upcoming race. Being a race newbie I didn't understand the phrase. I actually thought it had to do with taping my foot for support. She explained that runners often reduce, or taper, their running routine during the weeks leading up to a race. The object is to build an optimal balance between rest and conditioning.

With my race less than two weeks away I've been thinking about the best way to prepare myself for competition. Last weekend (counting Friday) I did longer runs for three consecutive days for a total distance just short of 12 miles. In deference to a slight but persistent leg injury, I have folded in a few elliptical sessions this week which provide less strain on certain affected muscles. I'm out of the office on Thursday and I'm hoping to do a long run in the morning plus longer runs over the weekend.

Next week is when the tapering will start. I'm going to be traveling on business for most of next week so I'll need to work my routine around that. Happily I'll be up at MIT and if weather and schedules cooperate I'll get to spend some quality time running near the Charles river. I'm traveling back on Saturday and I'm not planning to do any running that day. In fact I'm thinking of resting on Friday as well, perhaps only doing core stretching.

Will it make a great difference to rest a couple of days before the race? I'll let you know on the 19th.