one week taper

The beautiful weather is slowly cascading into a permanent fixture for the season. A nice 7-mile tempo yesterday with a round of kickboxing, and an easy hour run on Wildwood this morning, and I've now less than a week to go. Will I make the marathon in under 3 hours? Maybe. I would need another three months of solid training to be sure. If it's easy, I'll take it. If not, whatever happens, I can build on it.

Bob LaBlob's Law Blog

Great efforts by Americans Kara Goucher Ryan Hall at the Boston Marathon. Great analysis here: http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/04/boston-marathon-analysis.html

The Eugene Marathon is approaching, and I'm still not able to promise a world-class performance on my own behalf. However, my training is stable, and my big miles have improved in quality. Coming off the 24 mile run on Easter Sunday, I ran:
Monday: zero / rest
Tuesday: 2 miles on the track
Wednesday: 9 miles easy
Thursday: 2 miles on the track
Friday: 11 miles easy
Saturday: 7 miles total, with 6 miles under 7-min pace
Sunday: 13 on trail

Kickboxing continues to improve my overall flexibility and strength and, along with the long run, gives me a supply of energy that lasts throughout the week.

Wildwood 24

Nice 24-miler on Wildwood for Sunday. It doesn't get any better. I feel stronger than ever, so it must be true that more miles are good miles.

Training in Vernonia

Saturday was a great race. While others planned their weekend around that wimpier race, the Race for the Roses on Sunday, those who knew better enjoyed the ORRC Vernonia Half Marathon in Vernonia on Saturday. And, of course there were those strong enough to do both.

My main concern was building up those long runs before my marathon in Eugene. With such a terrible winter, will I have enough time to pull off a Personal Record in one month? Possibly. Do I need a Personal Record in Eugene to run a Personal Record on Mt Hood in 2010? Probably not, but it wouldnt' hurt.

I took photos of runners for the newsletter as they ran by, having completed the two and half mile loop around the lake, and then jumped in and joined them, interviewed them and taking more photos as we ran along. When I reached the end of the race at Stub Stewart Park, I chatted with a few participants, took a few more photos, and then ran back for a nice 21-mile training run. The weather was perfect.