Whoops

Yesterday's 'long' run was so short that I completely forgot to blog about it!  It was only six miles.  Hard to think of that as a long run after the past month, I do have to say.  And I realized that instead of being annoyed that it got hot during Taper Week, I should be grateful.  It would be even worse if it gets hot during a normal week with much longer runs.

Anyway, I've been reflecting quite a bit on how things are going since this is the last Taper Week before the real Taper Weeks that will occur right before the actual marathon.  Crazy!  In response to this, I think that I've started hording.  Yesterday I went to the Running Center and stocked up on 'sport beans,' opting only for the ones with caffeine (apparently, they do not all have caffeine, as I discovered around mile 10 of the 14-mile run.  Boo).  Today at the grocery store, I started hording carbs.  Because I will likely need carbs.  And kept reminding myself to stock up for when I am ridiculously hungry, which will probably start sometime tomorrow after a 9-mile run.  Also, I bought a big container of chocolate milk so that it's just sitting at home and I don't need to detour to the CVS and stand in line for, like, 15 minutes after a long run to get my chocolate milk because someone ahead of me feels that the marked discount on Tampa Bay Rays cowbells does not match what was in the sales flier (why yes, that did actually happen, how did you guess?).  I'm flipping the schedule this week because of work, so it will be 9M tomorrow, 5M with hills on Thursday, and long run Sunday.  The week after will having some flipping as well.  Stay tuned!

I have only 3 actual long runs remaining before the marathon: 16M, 18M, and 20M.  This schedule stops at 20M.  Please don't ask me if I am worried that this will not be enough training or if I think I will make it or if I feel that there should be another longer run.  The answer to all of those questions is that yes, I'm concerned.  But I'm reminding myself that it's not about the actual plan (to some extent) but your belief in the plan.  I mean, I could technically run a marathon tomorrow, regardless of how I trained, it just might not go so well and I might really hate myself the morning after -- and all of this will likely happen no matter what training plan I follow.  So I need to have faith that this plan will work.  Also, I'm already breaking it down in my head that it will be 2M + 2M + 2.2M to finish.  That's it.  Just three groups of two at the end.  This can totally be done.  And will be, dammit.

I also keep trying to do the math for 10% markers (2.6 miles) during the run but keep breaking down after 13.1.  It is a good time waster, though.

I do have to say that as I'm getting into this last stretch of training, I'm not feeling too awful.  No major injuries to report, no serious problems, and as long as I don't bang a shopping cart straight into my shin like I did today, no real pain.  Phew.  I may not be fast, but I think that I am pretty durable.

This post has lots of numbers for my non-quantitative brain.  No idea why.