Telling myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems

5 weeks to go until STWM

Maybe you noticed that I’ve added a race to my schedule before the marathon…  I’ve decided to race the Oasis Zoo 10km on Sept 24th.  I was hesitant at first to have this race on my schedule because of the high training load at this point in my build-up.  I wasn’t sure how long after the 1/2 marathon we’d wait before we did our big session.  Turns out recovery went well and we’re scheduled for a big one on Thursday, which gives me more than a week to get ready to race the 10km.  The mileage will still be high for the Zoo Run but it will be the effort that counts.  I feel more comfortable not having a 6 week gap between races, although it seems weird that I think 5 weeks is just fine.(?)

So yeah, big workout in a couple of days.  This session should tell us a lot about the kind of pace we’ll want for the marathon.  It will also be a good opportunity to refine our fuelling protocol which will mimic elite aid stations approximately every 5km in the race.  Last year when we did this workout it was 25C, this time around it should be much cooler.  This week is also scheduled to be my second biggest mileage week of the build-up, everything else should be easier after this.  But just because it will be marginally easier does not mean, for one second, that I can just chill until the race.

My legs are feeling much better after taking Friday completely off and having a “lighter” workout yesterday.  We did a whole bunch of 2 minuters however, we stayed on the trails and kept the pace relaxed.  For a while it seemed that just as my legs were going to recover it was time for another banger.  I had some residual fatigue in my quads for a while, and I guess that is just part of marathon training and I think I might get served another dose soon enough.  I think as long as you don’t carry that fatigue for too long it’s all right.  That’s one reason why I have a light day every week where I run less than half the mileage I would on any other typical day of the week.

I watched the last episode of Entourage last night, it’s a shame it’s over, but at least everyone turned their lives in the right direction within 30 minutes, haha.

Athletics Canada Press Release for Oasis Zoo 10km/ National 10km Championships