Pros and Cons

As I begin to re-define what it means to taper for a marathon (three runs in the last 10 days), I still feel like I'm in pretty good shape to have a successful race next weekend.  In general, a successful race would entail not having to walk or stop because of cramps, and running under an 8:00 minute per mile pace.  Looking back on the last two plus months of training, it's easy to see what went well (pros) and not so well (cons) with my training program.

Pros:
1.  Long Runs - Of the 12 weeks of my training program, 6 weeks have included runs longer than 17 miles.  I'm not sure I could say the same for any of the other marathons I've run.  Taking into consideration that one of the long runs was a race, I feel confident and prepared that I will finish the 26 miles next week.

2.  Injury free - No problems with my lower back, hamstrings, calves, Achilles tendons, or feet during the entire training program (knock on wood).  Not having to worry about an injury resurfacing during the race is a plus. However, I'm pretty sure my lack of injuries was also a result of.....

Cons:
1.  Lack of tempo and medium long runs - Tempo runs (fast-paced runs of 5 - 10 miles) and medium long runs (easy paced runs of 10 - 13 miles).  Simply put, tempo runs make you run marathons faster, and medium long runs make running marathons.  And more simply put, I rarely ran either.  For the medium long runs I did complete, they tended to hover around 10 - 11 miles, opposed to 12 - 13 miles.  The one positive is that these runs can take a toll on the body and a training program that incorporates these runs usually do not allow for as much rest following as a long run does.  Running these type of runs back to back, or within a couple of days of each other can easily cause injuries.  Plus, these runs can increase your weekly mileage by 25 - 40%.  High mileage is another big red flag for injuries.

2.  Consistency - As I'm sure almost everyone can relate to, sometimes life gets in the way and can prohibit running 5 or 6 days a week.  This definitely proved to be the case for me in the past three months.  Although I'm not too upset with the average number of miles I was able to run throughout the past three months (approx 35 miles), these miles were usually run within three to four day increments (normally from Friday to Monday).

With all of this in mind, I'm still looking forward to a fun race, and hoping for a great result.  And regardless of what happens, I'm looking forward to sharing my race day experiences with everyone.