Let the Tapering Begin!

With my last 32k out of the way, this week has been about cracking down on maintenance.

Tuesday - a 7-ish km run with my running buddies, after a very motivating talk from last year's marathoners. Message: you can do it!
I admit, I wish I had been the one talking about having done the marathon rather than the one about to do the marathon. A few pieces of advice I did take to heart, though: 1) it's going to hurt. It's a freaking marathon, so YES it's going to HURT. 2) Try taking some anti-inflammatories before the race to see if it helps (the jury is supposedly out on this one).

Wednesday - 10k fartlek. I did a fartlek how I usually do fartlek's; easy pace, with someone in the group calling out a speed (either 'medium' or 'fast') and a landmark to do said pace at, then pulling back into an easy job until the next call-out. My heart was in it, but I did something to my knee in the very first speed call-out, which sucked. Nothing fatal, but it sure did hurt! Unfortunately this meant that the rest of the run I struggled to go any faster than the 'medium' pace. Anything faster than that caused some serious pain.

Saturday - as my knee was still bugging me in the morning, I opted out of my own personal "ABCDSprint" routine that I've been doing.

Sunday - group run! 4 of us met near downtown Edmonton so we could run half the race course. I don't know if it was the shorter distance (21k!), the knowledge that I'm now tapering, or the joy of running with other people, but I was glowing the entire time. It was the first run in a long time that was purely fun. No focus on my pace, or on my heart-rate, or anything training wise. I just went out with the team and had FUN.

In just 2 weeks, the three of us gals will be lined up here for the start of our first marathon! (I'm on the left)

Oh, and I also got to see what I'll be running for km 21-42, which is also good to know. No knee pain also helped the fun feeling considerably.
And I did take an anti-inflammatory before this run, just to make sure it didn't affect my tummy. But no worries! I should be safe to take it on race day, should I choose.