California International Marathon Training Race Week

The final week of taper rendered me both absent-minded and hyper-productive. I had to channel all my excess energy into work, but my mind would get preoccupied at times and I would do silly things like schedule two posts (one of which was incomplete) for the same day. Yikes. 

My goal this week was to keep my pace easy on my runs and prioritize sleep, hydration, and recovery. 

Monday: AM: 5 mile easy run; PM: 15 minute Pilatesology workout

It was cold on this run! The wind chill was in the 30s (which is cold for Seattle in late November!), so I bundled up in capris, a quarter zip, my Mizuno gloves, and my favorite SmartWool headband. 

I experienced unusual coldness in my hands and feet all week, starting on Monday. I’m assuming it’s something to do with the taper and probably being near my racing weight, but I actually began to wonder if I had Raynaud’s Syndrome. My feet were still cold under two pairs of thick socks! Ryan pointed out that I was probably having some weird taper crazies, so hopefully this doesn’t persist after the marathon. 

Tuesday: 7 mile run with 4 miles at goal marathon pace

This workout served as my tune up for the race, to practice race pace. A workout focused on controlling the pace on fairly tapered legs is useful for pacing well through the first half of the marathon so you don’t go out too fast. 

Wednesday: Rest Day

That’s really all there is to say on that! I got a lot of work done instead. It’s weird how much time there is in the day when you’re not running!

I took Charlie and Ollie on a longer walk so I wasn’t sitting at my desk all day long. We even had a bit of sunshine on our walk! And then 5 minutes later it began to rain again. 

Thursday: 5 mile easy run

I am going slow on my easy runs this week – about 90 seconds per mile slower than my goal marathon pace. 

I started my three day carb-load, so I had a ton of antsy energy. I don’t remember feeling this energized or rested when coming off the 10 day taper of Hansons – so hopefully I feel fresh and ready to race on Sunday!

Friday: 3 mile easy run

Ryan and I headed out early for 3 easy miles in the dark and rain. We kept the pace very relaxed – I think we averaged a 10:00/mile – and chatted the whole time. Having a running partner helped significantly on this final run before the race – Ryan kept me from getting into my own head and obsessing about the race. It was really fun running with Ryan early in the morning and the three miles flew by.

I found out my mom was sick and in the hospital early Friday afternoon, and I took both my dad and Ryan to talk me down from scrapping the marathon and going to St. Louis instead. But my parents both believe in keeping life going unless it’s truly an emergency, and since my mom wasn’t in bad condition their instructions were to run the marathon as planned.

Saturday: Rest day

I actually don’t like to do shake out runs the day before the race. I rested the day before the Lake Sammamish Half and the Leaf Peeper Half, and both of those races went incredibly well for me. 

We flew down to Sacramento early on Saturday. The flight from Seattle to Sacramento is a short but scenic one. Within less than 90 minutes, we were in the capitol of California. 

Ryan and I wented to the expo and then focus on relaxing. We attended Mass at a church near our hotel, grabbed dinner at Whole Foods, and headed back to our hotel in Folsom to binge watch Parks and Recreation, enjoy a beer, and just help me relax. 

Sunday: California International Marathon

I will recap the race more soon, but here’s the short of it: I had a great race and hit all of my goals. I ran a 3:31:23 and punched my first ticket to Boston!

Thank you so much to everyone who emailed, texted, messaged, and left me encouraging words! I greatly appreciate all that support and it meant so much to me leading up to the race. 

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How was your week in training? 
How do the taper crazies manifest for you?