Do unto you as you would do unto others

I had a great 13 mile (21 km) run yesterday. It was the first cold day of the season. Temperatures were below freezing in the morning. Ironically, I am not entirely sure if the 13 feels any different from an 18 from a psychological point of view to me. Physically it is very different though, even with the higher intensity of the 13 in my training plan. Certainly, the 13 is not as draining. Anyway, this week's training volume is significantly less as it is in the taper down phase of training. The 18 milers and 20 milers are a thing of the past.   The other two runs in this week'a plan are a 4 x 1000 m interval run at 5:00 minute/km pace and a 5 mile at 8:55 pace. Yet to do the 5 mile - planning this Saturday.  The two key runs this week so far, the 13 mile and the 1000 m intervals were done better than goal pace - 13 miler at 9:06 against 9:10 goal and 1000m intervals about 4:45 min / km against the goal of 5:00.  Coach seems to be bullish on me after the last 20 mile run and yesterday's 13 miler.  Two-three weeks ago his thinking on my race goal pace was 9:45 per mile. Now he is thinking 9:15. And I like the way it is changing :-)

Exactly 10 days to NYC marathon!  I can't imagine the training is practically complete.  Next week's three key runs are #1 - 6 x 400 meters, #2 - 3 mile easy, and #3 - NYC Marathon Sunday Nov 6 (Yaay!!)

As the training volume is lower this week my body is not as sore any more. I am not spending as much time doing stretches and foam rolling, which is giving me more free time to think about race day and about  handling the 26.2 mile distance.  Even though the taper down phase will have the body recover and overcompensate in such a way that it will come back stronger than before, it will still be both a mental, physical and logistical challenge.  So now I am spending some time reading up all they have to say on race day preparation in all its aspects. Things like how exactly I should divide and conquer the 26.2. Should I break it down into four 10K's, or two 10 miles and a 10 K, or two 13 milers, or is a 18 or 20 mile followed by the rest better for me as those are the longest runs I had in my training and I can go by the same playbook I used in training for those distances.  And how I can go about managing my pace so that I am running conservatively early on..  Or perhaps I am overthinking the whole thing.. may be I should just SHUT UP, RELAX, AND RUN THE DARN THING!

Anyway, I've been reading the book The Runner's World Big Book of Marathon and Half-Marathon Training. It's got lot of good advice and covers a lot of ground. There is a whole chapter on "The Big Day". I would like to leave you with a quote from it -

Don't say anything to yourself that you wouldn't say to your running buddy... You wouldn't tell him, "You're running horribly, and you're going to die." So don't say it to yourself, either.

"Do unto you as you would do unto others!"  - a powerful message we all could use a good doze of when our spirits are down.


If I can run, u can run