3 weeks out from the monkey

Big contrast to my last decent marathon performance at this point in time. Some people start to taper at 3 weeks. Think I'll go with 10 days this time. Never did get to 70 miles in this buildup. Pretty hard to get that kind of mileage on 6 days of running. Only got to 57 miles this week. High mileage was 68 miles, the week before last. Still haven't run a 20 miler, no use in doing that this weekend or next. Probably do some fast finish long runs; haven't done any of those yet this cycle.

This weekend's long run was only 16 miles. Planned on 18, but didn't feel like adding another 2 miles at the end. Started early to get some miles before the guys showed up. Only got in 4 instead of the planned 6 miles. Call this a 8 mile marathon pace run sandwiched between a 4 mile warmup and a 4 mile cool down. Probably not as effective as a fast finish long run, but better than just a slog.

I will continue to go out to Saddle drive to do hill repeats. Think this will be my 3rd week back. The guys are training for a fast 4 miler at the Boro Dash. I'll plan on riding the bike or standing on the course with a cow bell. It'll be cool to see the guys in action, they are in different place from the workouts the coach as been giving them.

Did try something different on the long run this weekend. Clif Shot bloks. Only because that's what they had at Target. Never got around to comparing them to my usual Powergel. Coach said one package was equivalent to 2 powergels. I cut the pack in half and stuck it a baggie. Only ended up eating/sucking/chewing/chomping on half. They were cut into bite size pieces but seemed to work best just sitting in my mouth like chewing  tobacco. I bought the caffeinated one. I'll try them again this weekend, before deciding if I'll switch.

 One thing that really is apparent is the base needed before starting a marathon training cycle. Usually I've been doing 30-40 miles per week. This time was from zero starting in July. It wasn't until September that I hit 38 miles for the week. I was riding the bike during the time off from running. That just wasn't enough evidently.