23 Marathons Later and I Still Get Antsy Like a Noobie

So I'm about to embark on my 23rd marathon in a few days.

This should be old business for me, yet I'm still pretty nervous about it. I'm antsy because I don't know what to expect. I keep second guessing some things and reviewing my training. Maybe this is just because I drastically cut my mileage in the last handful of days? ...It's kinda been a crash training followed by crash taper... Or maybe I'm finally just experiencing some plain old taper madness??

I guess this is all amusing since I've been through it so many times. Regardless of experience, the feelings and fixations don't change when you're only a couple days out from a marathon. It's exciting and nerve racking all at the same time. The ultimate question is, what am I going run?

I've had a decent base all year long and I've run a lot of races (though most were glorified tempo runs and not a single PR --yet!). However, by the time I was able to focus on my marathon training during the summer, I started to hit a few road blocks.

I've discussed a couple of these issues previously: I over-raced earlier in the season. It's been an extremely humid year, and I became chronically dehydrated at various points through out the the summer. In July and early August, my quads were shot and forced some downtime. Then in early September, I was forced to cut a critical week of training due to a monster knot in my right calf (going only 40 miles instead of 90+).

Fortunately, those issues are past me by now and I do feel very healthy.

My training now hinges upon seven key weeks. And for the most part, I think I pulled it off... 67, 90, 99, 90, 40, 102, 81.

That 40 was a big hole though... It cut into my mileage right where I needed it most. It also had me cancel a key track workout that week. And that gets right to the heart of my taper madness... A lack of speed training. Sure, I've had some okay tempo runs. But every time I wanted to do something on the track throughout this training session, something got in the way. Last week's 20x400 was hacked. The week before's 10x800s were mediocre. I cut workouts short due to heat, humidity, nasty winds, stomach issues, the calf, and so on. As well, every attempt was a solo effort, which never helps.

In the end, this training had me doing a number of non-standard things. Lack of tracking. Weeks or days off when I didn't want them. Running a 24 miler two weeks out. Shorter taper. The list goes on. I don't feel like it's been terrible training, just that if I had one more week, then I'd be golden for a PR. Like I'm missing that one key big workout and I just ran out of time.

So why not one more nonstandard thing to seal all this? Now that I'm only a few days away from the marathon... and after taking three days off out of the last four... naturally, my OCD had me wanting to spin of the wheels today. I had to feed the beast. It's actually not too different from my other training cycles, it just comes one day later. A track sharpener on the Thursday before instead of Wednesday.

Anyway, I ran 5x400 at the track, in the middle of today's easy run. The first rep was roughly marathon goal pace: 90 seconds. No big deal. It actually felt comfortable. The next four reps were 70.3, 70.7, 69.9, 68.8; 90 seconds rest between the five. Fast and furious, and it hardly phased me.

I just wanted to turn my legs over. I had to see how they'd respond, and they did damn well. Smooth as could be. 69.9 average for the four. I didn't gain anything from this other than a mental boost... but that's what I needed most.

My endurance is here. I can feel it. I know I'm strong. I feel healthy. And after some days off and a very light week, I'm starting to feel fresh again. Now I just need to deal with the waiting game. Sunday will once again tell me how fast I really am.

Ugh. Into the deep once more.