With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

I got a late start, but didn't have to wait for my garmin to catch the sattelites because (thanks to Carolyn) I have it sitting in the window getting warmed up while I get dressed in the morning. 

3 easy miles: 9:48, 8:50, 8:27 (this was more like moderate) 

51.1^o, 89% humidity

Stretches, strength training/physical therapy

5 days left till the race.  Woo Hoo!!

I thought 4 miles would be okay for today.  It's the same I did last Tuesday, but it's still low enough miles that it's not going to ruin my taper. (At least that's what I think).

I ran easy/moderate.  Slow start with 9:55, then 9:05, then 8:50, then 8:40 (approx paces).  I wasn't trying to speed up, it just seemed like as I warmed up, the pace increased.

46^o ,   93% humidity    good weather.  the sun was lighting up the sky as I was heading home, around 5:50.  So I guess the sun is coming up around then.  It made a pretty morning sunrise color in the sky...kind of all the colors of the rainbow rising up from the tree tops.  I didn't need much from my headlamp today though, because the moon was sooo big and bright this morning.  It lit up the night.  Pretty cool morning to be out running and get to see all the beautiful stuff that people miss when they stay inside.

Physical therapy/strength training after.  I couldn't do my glutes the way I usually do on the ball because my back was sore.  I think it's just from sleeping wrong.  Nothing big, I'm sure it'll be gone tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is my last tempo day.  Yee-haw!  It's only 5 miles, with 3 tempo, so it's going to be a piece of cake.  The tempo is 8:55, so I'm not even going to worry about it.  I'm liking the taper week!

I found a wonderful little deli type store in town that sells fresh made tabouleh (?spelling?).  It is wonderful!!  I'm treating myself to some of it this week.  It's full of great carbs :-)  Yum, Yum.

4 1/2 days left till the race!!!  Woo Hoo!

update: ran .75 on bleachers then .3 around the track for another mile after work.  Walked & stretched to cool down.

I woke up to run and checked my workout log to make sure I had my miles/times right for the tempo run I was going to do.  I saw that this week, they've changed the tempo run to Thursday. 

So I did some quick thinking and decided I would go back to sleep and do some elliptical.  I've read it's important to get plenty of sleep the week before a long race, so I thought I could get more rest, and do some moderate elliptical.  I did bleachers yesterday and figured it wouldn't hurt my legs to rest a little more.

I did 25 min on the elliptical, then all of my physical therapy stuff.  I thought that would be enough, but I feel sluggish (like I haven't done a workout at all).  Maybe I'll do my tempo run tonight after school...I don't know.  I just feel like I didn't do enough...is this normal for taper week? 

This morning couldn't come fast enough.  Since I wasn't supposed to run yesterday, it's all I could think about doing.  It was such a release to get going today.  I enjoyed all of it!

Tempo run 5 miles total.  3 miles tempo in between warm ups & cool downs.

start 48^o end 46^o  86% humidity.  Beautiful, clear skies again.  I took my headlamp & hat off at the end so I could enjoy the night/early morning sky.

I did my tempos a little faster than they'd suggested, but I think it's okay, because on average, I'm always running faster than their suggested pace.  I wasn't ever really pushing hard, I was just running faster..if that makes sense.

paces were: 9:55, 8:30, 8:10, 7:55, 9:15 (I'm rounding.... I can't remember exactly what they were, but I know they're about this pace).   I walked .5 mile home to finish the loop.  Any other day I would have run, but I'm really wanting to do this taper thing right.

I didn't get my physical therapy done this morning, it'll have to wait till tonight.  I guess I'm skipping bleachers after school today.  It's going to be beautiful, but I know I need to rest, and I want to get dinner ready early so I can make it to the big craft show in town.  It runs today-Sunday, so this will be my only day to make it. 

I'm excited to go to the craft fair because I saw they've got a crickle booth.  I've wanted to try it ever since I saw it on Food Network.  YUM!  And speaking of food, I bought a giant sized bag of chocolate puffs with marshmallows for breakfast next week.  No oatmeal for me.  I've been eating oatmeal 6 days a week since mid-August.  I'm ready for the treats!!!

72 hours from now, I'll be running somewhere along the race route!! 

I was excited to run this morning.  I was looking at my training calendar, and I'm all the way at the bottom.  Only one thing left....the big run.  So this was my last "training" day. 

The run was easy, I tried to keep my pace over 9mm.  I think my first mile was around 9:45 and the second was around 9:15. 

I went to the craft festival last night.  Lots of booths were selling things with polka dots and big monograms.  That must be the craft thing of the season.  I got to try some crickle.  It's kind of like peanut brittle, but it's not as hard.  The brittle part is crunchy, but it's more of a flaky kind of crunchy, like a butterfinger.  It was good, but it wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be. Of course I bought some, because maybe it'll grow on me.

It was hard not eat all of the different things they had to taste test there, but I knew I didn't need the fat/calories from that stuff (dips, cakes, chips, fudge, funnel cake!).  I was a little worried about the germs too.  I thought, what if someone double dipped?  Or what if that dip hasn't been kept at a cool temp long enough?  I didn't want to get sick from it.  I feel like I'm little OCD lately about not getting sick from people around me.  I've trained too much to give it all up for some rhino-virus or flu bug.

Less than 48 hours left! 

10 1/2 hours till race time....  I need to get to bed!!!