Spring marathons

The Boston marathon has come and gone. Next up is the Country Music Marathon here in Nashville, on Saturday. One of the tough things about a spring marathon is the uncertainty with the weather. Tomorrow's forecast is not very runner friendly. 63 degrees at 7 am, gun time and 79 degrees by 11 am. The half marathoners should be ok, but anyone running over 3:30 for the marathon is going to have some serious heat. Looks to be the second warmest or maybe the warmest CMM to date. Sure glad I'm not running it.

I prefer to train for the fall marathons. Downside for them is having to train in the heat, but most times you get the benefit of a cool/cold day on the day of the race. Most training runs for the spring marathons are run in cooler/cold weather. Lots' of rain this cycle, but little or no heat. I've been watching the 10 day forecasts for Cincinnati. Looks like our weather will be decent, low of 56 degrees and a high of 73 degrees. Little warmer than I'd prefer, but not a sauna bath like it will be in Nashville.

Good luck to everyone running the Country Music Marathon or half marathon. Hope they've fixed the traffic jam at the stadium. I'll be sleeping in on Saturday. Plan on running a easy 8 miles on the greenway once the sun comes up.

My goal race, the Flying Pig is one week, one day and one hour away. This cycle has been the most intense training ever for a marathon. More long runs. More speed training. More miles. But, here it is one week of taper down and a touch over a week to go and the pre-race jitters aren't as bad. My resting heart rate has dropped another couple beats. Seems I'm calmer? Doesn't mean I'm not going through everything about the race in my mind.

I'll toe the line at the pig, at the lowest weight since high school. Not that I've ever really gotten fat or overweight. The most I've ever weighed is 172 and now I'm down to 152. Most of my marathons I only get down to around 160 pounds. It wasn't until I started increasing my mileage that I dropped below 160. When I eliminated all off days in my running, I actually gained a couple of pounds for about a month.