Saturday, April 9, 2011

Bring on the taper

This morning was the last long run before the Oshkosh Half Marathon next week.

Although after logging "long" runs of 11, 12 and 13.5 miles the last three weeks, I have to admit it's kind of weird calling 8.5 miles long. Kind of scary when you get to that, "Ah, it's only 8 miles" mentality.

But anyway. 8.5 miles. Originally it was supposed to be a 9 mile run, then Coach Jim decided to bump it down to 8. And then he mapped out a route and it ended up being 8.5 miles. The run felt great. I was happy with the pace - which I kept pretty steady save for that Ballard Road hill that made a comeback this week - and my legs were feeling good. I pushed the pace the last mile. I wanted to finish strong, including the last hill of the training cycle. I haven't downloaded the data from my Garmin yet, but I'm anxious to see what kind of pace I was holding during the last quarter-mile or so, because I felt like I was booking it.

And it felt so good.

So with the run done, I'm officially starting my taper. I've got four short runs on the plan for next Monday through Thursday. And when I say short I mean short. We're talking something like 4, 2, 3, 1. Yes. A one-mile run on Thursday. Love it.

1 comment:

Suzy said...

You are ready for your half. I hope that taper week is kind to you.