Am I ready?
I officially began my taper for Nashville last weekend, but I did my last set of Yassos this morning. the workout went OK, but I didn't feel as good as I'd hoped to feel. The weather was 65 degrees and humid, and I was wearing a tight UnderArmor shirt that I wasn't used to; but running those last 2-3 reps was pretty tough. My goals at Nashville are to finish respectably (4:10-4:15) and not feel like a walking corpse afterward. Since a 4:12 would be 15 minutes slower than my marathon PR, I think that I can meet both those goals -- if I have done enough miles and enough tempo. My long runs -- two 18s and a 16 -- have not been as long as I usually like to stretch them for marathon training. I've done four sets of Yasso 800s since January, plus one long tempo of 5 miles, several shorter tempos, a half-marathon and a 10-mile race, three 5Ks, a 10K, and a handful of pace runs. My highest-mileage week was 39. Not optimal marathon training, by any means; but it will be enough to get me to the finish if I pace myself appropriately. The real question is: how will I feel afterward?