Let the Taper Begin…Except for Tuesday’s Yasso’s!

That was the theme today, and yes, we are doing Yasso’s on Tuesday with my group, but today marks the official end to the mileage build up. Over the next 3 weeks I’ll be cutting back my mileage and of course there is a big race 3 weeks from tomorrow.

My plan, 22 miles, the group had plans for 20, so I went for a quick two mile warm up through downtown St. Paul.

Mile 1 – 9:06
Mile 2 – 10:00

Then met my group, basically at mile 26.2. Today’s run was an out and back. 10 miles backwards over the marathon course and then 10 miles back. Coming into today I had 40 miles in, not counting the race on Sunday (since that was last weeks mileage but still, it was a factor to the week). The Fartlks on Tuesday and the somewhat failed intervals in the downpour on Thursday. I had a decent meal, similar to what I want to eat the day before the marathon (at my favorite restaurant) last night, got to bed, and thought before bed that I couldn’t wait till today, getting this last long run done. The long run with the group. Plan was long slow distance of course, BUT if you felt OK, run harder coming back…up the hills. So that’s what I did.

Mile 1 – 9:15 Mile 12 – 8:32
Mile 2 – 8:54 Mile 13 – 8:52
Mile 3 – 9:10 Mile 14 – 9:28
Mile 4 – 8:54 Mile 15 – 8:31
Mile 5 – 8:54 Mile 16 – 8:39
Mile 6 – 8:21 Mile 17 – 8:08
Mile 7 – 8:51 Mile 18 – 8:10
Mile 8 – 9:42 Mile 19 – 7:50
Mile 9 – 8:49 Mile 20 – 7:53
Mile 10 – 8:53 Mile 21 – 7:54
Mile 11 – 9:08

I’m pleased with the results. We ended up longer by a mile, I was fine with that. Average pace was 8:43, which is what I had been wanting to run my long runs at. The slowest miles from today are pretty much water stops, and the best part. The hills at Mississippi River road, which are the harder ones, are the hardest we saw and I’ve run them 2 other times with the group already. Everyone always warns that Summit is bad, the hills will kill you from mile 22-24…we were running Summit and one guy said “almost to the top”…my response…in seriousness, “we are climbing a hill?” Talk about feeling good!!

And in the beginning of the run, my legs were feeling a little tired, still kind of were at the end, but the main thing is I did it, and I think I did it well. And now let the fretting and worrying that comes with taper on…we all know it happens!! Oh yeah, and that makes 63 miles for the week, matching my highest mileage ever, and I'll be doing a recovery run tomorrow.