There are 12 days left until Around the Bay. Since I haven’t really been following a schedule, other than getting ideas from the Running Room’s marathon training guide, I have no idea what I should be doing right now. I have looked at the 30k training guide on the race’s website, but I am pretty sure that was created with really crazy runners in mind – honestly it looked tougher than marathon training. So, do I start tapering? I’m not sure, somehow I feel a little undeserving of a taper considering I started training a month later than I should have. I swear if I had one more month I would be so ready for this race!
Instead, I am making it up day by day and it is rather liberating. Other than knowing I will take the Friday and Saturday before race day as rest days, I am simply going to put on my shoes (or not) and see what I feel like doing (or not doing). In other words, no pressure and whatever happens, happens. Am I nervous about the race? Absolutely. Nervous enough to have to force myself to avoid thinking about it when I go to bed for fear of not falling asleep – or perhaps even worse, falling asleep and dreaming of never ending hills looming as far as the eye can see. But ultimately I am glad I am getting the chance to try a race that everyone seems to love, despite the dreaded hills.
My somewhat fast time for the St. Patrick’s Day 10k seems to have given me a mental and physical boost. I headed out today planning to do 10 – 14 steady km’s. Within 2k, feeling good, I changed my plans and decided to push harder and complete a faster 5k then take a break, run another 5k but slower and then a slow run for however many km I could fit in before getting the kids. The first 5k was done in just over 28 minutes. The second “slower” 5k lasted for about 28 and a half minutes. I was originally aiming for 30 minutes but halfway through I felt good and decided to go for a sub 29. Then I finished it up with a relaxing 3k with some small hills. It turned out to be a pure “run by feel” day and it was, dare I say it…FUN! I love these days that remind you running is not a chore, or at least it does not have to be all the time. Sometimes it is simply the highlight of your day 🙂
I am so glad to hear you say that the AtB training plan on their site seems crazy to you too!! Seriously, it must be aimed at much more elite runners – scared the pants off me the first few times I looked at it! I’m running the 30k for the first time this year and hoping for sub 3 hours (was looking at 2:45, but have been dealing with nagging knee pain so scaled back my expectations). Good luck on Sunday! 🙂
I am also glad I am not the only one who panicked seeing that schedule!!! The Grim Reaper would have had to come get me weeks early if I had tried to manage that training!
I hope you reach your goal – take it easy on your knee. I’m hoping for somewhere between 3:00 and 3:15 so I will be staggering into Copps sometime after you. Have fun!