The waves looked absolutely amazing today. A surfer called me because he saw a Jeep with a board on top driving down the road that looked like mine. He wanted to know if I was going surfing and if I knew something he didn't. I said, "heck no man, it's 40 degrees outside and I need a hood!" We had a good laugh.
However, after work I decided that there's no use fighting all this energy I have after doing two days of nothing. I suck at tapering, although I still feel like I don't have much to taper. I decided to go for a "Forest Gump" run. Just start running, test out what it feels like to run in 40 degree weather near the ocean with wind and 70 percent humidity and see how far I go. I opted to wear a North Face windbreaker over my long sleeve tech shirt and it was quite comfortable. I never did work up a good sweat, but I really concentrated on going slow and taking a few short and precise walking breaks. I managed nearly 8 miles in about 1:16:00ish and squeezed in five 1-minute walk breaks including a one water stop at the beach.
I know it's probably not a good idea to run that long when you are only 4 days from a marathon, but it's also a confidence builder. I felt like my body needed this otherwise, based on previous experience, I would be having too much rest time. I've already been told to settle down by a few more experienced runner friends after I told them what I did tonight and I plan to actually taper from here on out. My legs feel pretty damn good at this point. My Achilles tendon feels strong and now I finally feel like I'm ready as I can be under the circumstances for this race. Now.... only to figure out what to do for the next four days?
Race Day looks to be ultra cold... probably in the 30s. It's going to be interesting!
If anyone wants to follow my progress Sunday morning and laugh at how slow I'll probably be as I jaunt through the Disney parks with 24,000 other soon-to-be friends, then can go to this website and follow the instructions to get email and/or text message updates on race day of my progress. Type in my last name: McElroy and my first name: Sylvan (so much for blogging anonymity) and you should be able to find me. Then you can time stalk me based on my chip time.
Taper or not sometimes you just gotta go work out the kinks and make sure the cobwebs haven't set in. You're going to do great this weekend and I can't wait to cheer you on! Enjoy every minute of it, take pictures, have fun, cheer on the other runners, make it count! See you at 23!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's pretty cold all over the country. Good that you went out for a run yesterday, it will probably help you deal with it for the race! You'll be awesome this weekend. Be sure to have fun, while you're at it!
ReplyDeleteTotally jealous you have avocado and papaya trees!