changing it all up for race week - the checklist

with just a few days to go before the 2014 mississauga marathon, i'm running through my checklist of things to bring/do:

• gatorade, beet juice and clif bars:  i've actually decided to tackle carbo-loading a bit differently this week compared to previous marathons.  i'd read that while most distance runners have a sense of the advantages of carboloading, most do not do it enough - so this time around i'm going to try a three-day carboload after having come off of a two-day carbodepletion mini-cycle.  honestly i feel as fit as i have ever been in my life, and am ready to start the fueling process for this race.
  
  
  
• Skechers GOMeb Speed 2:  none of my previous marathons have been run in a racing flat - and in fact, the only time that i've raced any distance in a racing flat was my last 10k event in which i also wore the GOMeb Speed 2.   a review on these is still to come, but at this point i can say that the fit is better than i had expected, and the pop on these shoes (courtesy of the Dupont Hytrel™ stability shank/plate) makes the propulsive phase of the running gait cycle seem that much more dynamic.  besides being a Skechers Performance Division ambassador, i would have had no questions about using these for the race this weekend - especially after Meb's iconic win at boston last month.
  
  
  
• garmin 305:  i contemplated running this marathon naked (get your minds out of the gutter people!) but i have essentially been doing that this week with my tapering schedule.  normally i would have included a couple of speed intervals and hill repeats in this final taper week, but after some reflection and paying attention to how my body is feeling i decided instead to forego intensity and pick up a few additional miles.  this is different from any of my previous training plans, but i do feel very good about it.


• blue-and-yellow rainbow loom bracelet:  one of my daughters made this for me last december - she'd asked me what colours i might like to have for a bracelet, and i requested blue and yellow (boston marathon colours) so that i could wear it during this upcoming marathon as a reminder that i'm just trying to hit my qualifying time.  in both of the last two marathons that i ran i felt that i had all the conditioning pieces that i needed to hit my BQ time - but in both instances i feel that i went out much too fast and bonked.  this time i feel even more confident than before (having run more miles in this training cycle than any previous, as well as pushing out race-pace runs geared toward a faster-than-BQ finish) and will be planning to run a very controlled race through 35km.  the bracelet is to remind me that i need to stay with the 3:15 pacer until we cross through the proverbial - and in the mississauga race it's a visual - wall.
  
  picture courtesy http://marleneontherun.blogspot.ca/2011/05/mississauga-marathon-bq-race-report.html

at this point i feel more than ready - the 'madness' of the taper really hasn't struck in the same way as in previous pre-race periods ... it's more of a sense of expectation of success.  

see you at the finish line!

changing it all up for race week - the checklist