I’m in my first full week of taper time, and I’m felling a little better.

Last week I had a lot of stuff on my mind. I’m behind on my training and my fundraising, and time is running out! I knew these would be issues going into this, but it became very corpreal last week

Have you ever had that dream where you sit down for a college exam and you never even bought the book or went to a single class? I’m feeling a little bit of that.

On top of that, my wife is going to Spain for a school trip the week of the marathon. With everything that’s going on these days, that’s yet another worry. Another cinder block.

Taper Time Training

The Sunday Long Run dropped from 21.5 to 14.8 miles this week. A huge drop in miles but we had to deal with wet blowing snow. The sides of the road were covered in slush and cars couldn’t help but spray us as they drove by.

Knowing that I had a much shorter distance to run, I pushed a little harder on the hills. It was tough on the legs but I’m down to the wire and need all the hill work I can get.

When I got to the end of the run I was close to 15 miles, so I ran around the parking lot a few times to get to a nice whole number.

On Tuesday I did 4 miles on the treadmill at work, and it was hard. I wanted to do 5, but the legs said no. Thursday I managed to run 5 miles on the treadmill at marathon pace and it was comfortable.

My weekly total miles dropped to 24 even, down from 30 the previous week. A big 20% drop.

Next week the Sunday Long Run drops to 12.5 miles, but we run the Fellsway hills in both directions! We hit the hill on Highland Ave on the way out and the hill on East Border Road on the way back, then hit the Fellsway Hills one last time.

So while the run will be shorter, it will be more challenging on the legs. As such, I’ll probably drop down to a 5K on Tuesday night and a 5 mile treadmill run on Thursday. That will bring my weekly miles down to 20.6. If I drop my Thursday run to 4 miles it will be okay.

Right now I’m trying to stay healthy and not do anything stupid. That means lot’s of hand washing and wearing slippers around the house. If anything happens at this point, I don’t have time to take off from training to recover.

My shoulder feels better and a little core work would probably be helpful right now. But, I cannot risk straining my shoulder doing a plank or down-ward dog. My right hand has stopped tingling and feeling numb, so I’m gonna call it good.

Boston Marathon Expo

The Boston Marathon Expo opens at 10AM on Friday. I know it will be a zoo, but I’ll ask my manager if I can leave a little early and go pick up my number. I just love being in that crowd. It is totally energizing and I don’t really mind the crowd at all. It’s my tribe.

Hyland’s Leg Cramps will be there. Their product actually helps with leg cramps, it doesn’t cause them! They shot a short video with me last year. I was a little nervous, but it was fun and they actually posted it on their web site.

Brooks Running, my go to shoe, will be there also. Quite often the vendors will have special expo discounts and the nutritional companies are always handing out samples.

Quite a few big marathons will be there also, and they usually offer some good discounts as well. If I make it through this race relatively unscathed, I’ll be looking to sign up for a destination marathon.

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Check out my Pinterest page for a few more examples of our Boston Marathon frames.

BAA Volunteer

On Sunday I will be at the Boston Marathon Expo, in the hallowed hall distributing runner’s packets and bibs! This is my first year volunteering at the BAA Expo and I think I have the best assignment. What could be more exciting than giving a runner their number?

I did pull the last shift on Sunday afternoon. So that means I will be on my feet from about Noon until 6PM on Sunday. I volunteered before I knew I had a number and did not know what my assignment would be.

This will be a new Boston Marathon experience for me. For a guy who has run Boston six times already, a new and exciting experience for race number seven is going to be awesome!

I hope to see you there!

Run well my Friends!

Andy

© 2016 andrew nagelin