The taper

Well, I'm deep into the taper at this point, with just over 2 days to the marathon. I get deal with the standard taper annoying pleasures like I legs keep twitching, but it's comforting to know they're like race horses chomping at the bit or the lack of sleep = annoying, but I know my metabolism is through the roof! Anyway, we weren't so strict about training since the last blog post. I kept up on the speed, but never quite got to that 20 mile pre-marathon run. 18 will have to be good enough. In the end I decided to run with the Pirate; it's always more fun to run with her and I get to feel all proud as I watch her complete her first (of many?) marathons. I made that decision a few weeks ago and so focused on ripping a 5k that we'd done the previous two years. The course is a cross-country course that is super-flat and about half paved. The first year I ran a twenty.....well there's no need to say exactly how slow I was, last year I ran a 20:58, and this year, (dut duh-duh Duh!) a 19:07. That is faster than I've ran since the ol'college days. It was a really fun race as I ran shoulder to shoulder with another guy for almost the entire race. I had actually resigned myself to not sprinting with him until I was close enough to the clock that I could see there was the slimmest of chances to get under 19 minutes. Unfortunately I saw it about 150 yards and it was already at 18:54. As I write this it's terribly obvious there was no way I could run 150 yards in less than 6 seconds, but in the heat of the moment my ambition surpassed my mathematical prowess. Oh well, it's the first race in a long time that I've got to run with someone my own speed and it was fun to push and encourage each other. We worked together so well that we really started gaining ground on the guy in front of us in the last mile, probably closing from 300 yards to 50. I ended up 2nd in my age group, the guy who won my group ran 16:30 something! Well, next year I'll shoot for sub-18. Another cool part about the race: speedwork pays off regardless of age. Almost all the awards were given to speedwork regulars, which was pretty cool. I'll definitely be getting back to those workouts after the marathon.

After the marathon we're very excited to not be so focused on running. We rode the Colorado National Monument last weekend and realized how much we miss being on the bike. The Pirate had been doing way more biking than me this summer and it showed; she crushed me going up the hills. We were both faster than we'd ever been and did the 42 mile, super scenic, pavement like glass, prettiest route I've ever rode in 2h47m. I swear if she hadn't been waiting for me she'd easily have gone under 2h30m. This will definitely be a regular ride next year. We're also real excited to do some Insanity. The Pirate did it last year and the benefits to speed, power, and recovery time were obvious through the year. Hopefully I can hack it. We'll mix in some trail runs, weight lifting, and swimming and get a real strong base for next race season. This season was all about running pain free and it was the first in a long time. Running at the same speed as back in the day was a bonus. Next year should be fast.