It all comes down to this.
Or perhaps it's better said that it all comes together this Sunday.
That's the hope anyway - that the work that I've put in at the guidance of my coach Mike MacInnes will pay its dividends when I toe the line at the 15th annual Mississauga Marathon. It's been a season of new training tactics - from regular strength workouts to fewer 'rest/recovery days' to greater overall weekly mileage - all in an attempt to become faster, more durable and anti-fragile. Even though I'm still reasonably new to the running scene I do count myself as being an aging runner and the approach that coach Mike has had me take over the last few months has definitely stretched my limits.
How do I feel during this last week of tapering? My friend Lewis asked me that exact question this past weekend and my answer to him was "honestly, I'm not sure how I'm feeling". The reasons for that are because I've run two 'tune-up' races this season (the Chilly Half-Marathon and the Around The Bay 30k) which both resulted in disappointing chip-times, and many of the prescribed race-pace (or faster) workouts have seen me fail to come close to the speeds that I was asked to hit. I also feel as if I've done that precarious dance on the overtraining line wondering at various times whether or not I'd actually crossed over into the dark side.
That all being said one of the refrains that has constantly run through my head during a long and dreary-ish winter has been "trust the training plan, trust your coach". I know that Mike is a stellar athlete himself and intelligent when it comes to the ways of exercise physiology, and he has clearly told me that the entire plan is designed to culminate on marathon race day ... that the final stage of supercompensation is focused on presenting the best version of myself on May 6.
He's also been a big proponent of the mental training aspect, having recommended that I read "How Bad Do You Want It?" by Matt Fitzgerald. I also received a recommendation from my pal Steve to read "Endure" by Alex Hutchinson - alas, being a reluctant reader I've not had an opportunity to benefit from either of these sport psychology-focused texts, but I have kept visualizing the huge smile on the face of my running icon Yuki Kawauchi as he crossed the line as this year's Boston Marathon male champion.
So I can say with confidence that I've put the work in - I'm still riding a bit of a high having completed my first 100+ mile training week just over a week ago and believing that that is going to be a big contributor to how good I will feel especially in the later stages on the marathon. I'll also be wearing a new pair of racing flats (the Salming Race 5) which I did not have available to me for my previous two races this spring and which feel much better and lighter than the Salming Speed 6 for posting fast times (at least in my humble opinion). And one other intangible - for which I can take absolutely no credit whatsoever but is nonetheless a mental boost for me - is that my friend Jeroen Hendrikx wore the singlet that I had in my drawer for the last year to a 19th place finish in yesterday's Hamburg Marathon, crossing the line in 2:20:45.
Yep, that's my old race kit blazing through Germany in 2:20!
There it is - I've done my part to control what I can control. The rest is up to the weather, how much rest I can get this week, the germs that I can manage to avoid and how smartly I control my pace out on course. Regardless of what my official finish time will be I'll know that I stretched beyond my comfort zone in preparing for this race and am grateful to coach Mike for his guidance and support and to my RunNinjas clubmates for all of their outstanding encouragement and companionship on this journey!
#nononsense #runSwedish #teamTap #fuelsimply #werunthistown #breaking3
