The Final week of training. Well actually tapering.

 What seemed so far away now seems too close. Race day is next Sunday the 15th so I'm either ready or I'm not. I'm going to be cautiously optimistic about this because overall the plan has gone quite well. I drew up a plan at the beginning of this and with only minor adjustments I've been able to stick with it. I'm not saying that I felt good on every run but all the key workouts were just about perfectly executed. The only thing I would do differently would be to have a couple of 20 -22 mile long runs but although I had them planned things just didn't work for me to make them happen. I just have to hope I have enough endurance and muscle memory in the aging bod to carry me through those lat 10 kilometers.
  This past week was mostly a recover and start the taper week but I did do my last hard 10x 800 yassos on Thursday. Here is what the week looked like.

Sun: rest
Mon: 3 slow and easy at home in 27:44
Tue: rest
Wed: 6 at marathon pace on the Neuse in 53:50
Thu: Track day 10 x 800 in 3:52-4:00 with the average about 3:54. Total of 8.5 miles with warm up, cool down and recoveries. 1:12:33.
Fri: rest
Sat: 8 miles on the turkey creek loop in Umstead in 1:14:59

 And whats up with the wind ! Everyday ! Windy!

 My upper arm/shoulder thingy is still painful but showing slight improvement so again I avoided and weights and calisthenics. I did manage two core workouts and two yin  yoga sessions. Hopefully I can improve on that after the race.

 Wish me luck !

Only two weeks to go ! How are things going?

  Well, after last weeks struggle in the Raleigh Half I was beginning to wonder. I rested a couple of days and decided to just run easy the remainder of the week, skipping a planned track session and hope for a bounce back at the Ellerbe half. It seemed to pay off with a strong effort on the hills. That was a much needed confidence boost. I'm resting today and going forward I have one more hard workout planned and other than that just some easy miles and nothing longer than maybe 10 next weekend. I'll call this the taper. Here is what I did. 33.2 miles.

Sun: rest
Mon: rest
Tue: 6 easy but strong Umstead miles in 53:52
Wed: 5 easy Neuse River miles on a warm humid day in 46:02
Thu: 5 miles easy at Salem Creek in 45:24
Fri: rest
Sat: 1 mile warmup, Ellerbe Half in 1:54:41, 3 mile cooldown.

Still doing some cross training. 2 yoga sessions and 3 core workouts. Only one dumbbell workout. My upper right arm is hurting too much right now so I'm just going to have to let it heal. IT even bothers me running which is not a good thing. It's so frustrating because the strength was really coming along nicely.

 Thanks for reading and stay tuned.