Well it’s officially taper time. Volume this week was reduced to about two thirds of usual weekly volume. Also some thinking on goals for the marathon.

This week

Monday some light strength training – chin ups, overhead press and one set of dead lifts. Fairly basic. I want to introduce more strength work post marathon but for now it’s just very light weight really just going through the movements.

On Tuesday back to the usual stomping ground Princes Park. Instead of the 15km session it was reduced to an 11km run at 5:00/km pace. My legs felt a little bit tired following the 28km run on Sunday but not too bad. The worst part was my shoe started coming loose towards the end but I didn’t want to stop! Note to self: make sure shoe laces are well tied marathon morning.

Wednesday were 3 x 1km reps. I was aiming to get down to the Werribee track but got caught up at work.  I was slightly concerned about how busy it might be but the best option seemed to be to head down to the Olympic Park Oval track. Lucky for me it was very quiet and with daylight savings it was brilliant to train in sun light for the whole session, even though I didn’t start my reps until 6:30pm!

Last minute decision Thursday to get a chinese massage after work. Generally I prefer a proper remedial massage (and I did have one last week) but there is a Lu’s Healthcare where I park my car and it’s a convenient option to stop in with no appointment needed. This will be my last massage pre marathon.

Friday for some reason Chelsea assigned me a 42 minute run, apparently it just worked out that way? I ran to 42 minutes and 12 seconds to make it 42.2 minutes. In the evening I did my foot and calf exercises.

Saturday morning was 15km @ 5:20/km pace. My legs are feeling fresher as I went through the first few kms too fast without it feeling any harder than usual. It took a while to ease back towards target pace, I will need to be more controlled on race day.

Later on I watched some of the first round of AV Shield out at the Geelong track. I was glad to just be a spectator, hard to imagine racing 1500m right now!

Sunday, well no running today. I dropped past the Werribee track for our club’s working bee to prepare for AV Shield Round 2. Here’s me putting masking tape on a steeplechase hurdle..

Running

1%-ers

Marathon goals

My goal when first starting training for this marathon was to run a sub 4 hour marathon. That hasn’t changed and it is still my main goal, if I get a sub 4 time I will be happy.

However, after 35 weeks of training you gain a better idea of what you might be capable of. I have done plenty of long training runs at this pace now, my aim will be to maintain 5:20/km from start to finish. I’m confident I can run past 30km at this pace, beyond that it’s grey area and where the real hard work will begin.

I think holding the pace to the end is possible, picking up the pace towards the end.. maybe? But thinking back to my first marathon at Gold Coast I remember how hard that final 10km and especially the final 5km were. I’m so much more prepared for it this time around, but still it can’t be underestimated how hard those final kms are.

The dream goal is to run under 3:46:47 which I’ll do if I can hold my 5:20/km pace. Why that time? It would be a 30 minute PB! I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to do it, but I’ll give it everything I can this Sunday.

Coming up

Only 3 more training runs to go, very light this week to get the legs ready.

Being even more pedantic than usual with diet. Lower carbohydrate and calorie intake for the first half of this week since training load is so low. Increase carbohydrate intake from Friday (or maybe Thursday evening) onwards to load for race day. Trying to eat lots of good foods. Coach has us taking 1000mg of vitamin c per day this week for anti-inflammatory and probably to help avoid getting sick!

No lifting weights allowed. But I will be doing some of my main physio/podiatrist prescribed exercises as they’re important preparation.

Less than a week to go!

Summary