As I sit here looking out the window on this beautiful spring day (finally) I am left with the argument in my head as to run or not to run. It is after all taper week and rest is the most important thing this week but it always amazes me the amount my brain wants to keep running, even though I know I will benefit more from rest. So needless to stay I am trying to stay distracted and not run today. Here is how the last couple of weeks of hard training panned out.
My first week back under 100km started out with Yasso 800s again… this time we were attempting 10×800 at pace you want to run the marathon. It went really well and I felt I could easily hold the 2:45 for the 800s. So that was a great confidence booster! That week ended with Harry’s Spring Run Off (see my race review to read more about that).
Last week did not go quite as planned. I had a bit of a muscle strain and so took a couple days off and was diligent with treatment and self care. I was able to still get my quality runs in. Unfortunately this is the game we play when trying to get to that next level. You come close to the injury line. As depicted below in order to improve you must cross the bottom (green) line then you have a range that you will see gains and stay injury free. But if you start to get close to the top (red) line that is when injury occurs. Sometimes it is hard to know where this line is especially when you are feeling fit and fast. I think this is a good picture to explain how running injuries happen and the more you can understand this the better it will be! Feel free to email me if you have questions about this torunningchiro@gmail.com.
*taken from The Running Clinic course http://www.therunningclinic.ca/en/home/
I attempted some at pace work in the last few workouts… and it is definitely my weakness having the discipline to go at pace is something I need to continue to work on… hopefully I can get it together over 42.2km.
That brings us to taper week. So the name of the game now is rest. Two days off and aside from my workout yesterday no runs over 40mins. Here we go!!!
Also just a reminder I am fundraising for the Alzheimer’s Society research department for my efforts of training and racing the Boston Marathon. My dad has early onset Alzheimer’s and it sucks! So I wanted to try and do something to make a difference. The fund raising site is https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=2677043&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=%26Referrer%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.memorymakersforalzheimers.ca%252f#&panel1-2 There is more information about my dad’s story on the fundraising site. I have well surpassed my goal and am so touched by the generosity. I am currently the second highest fundraiser for the Alzheimers society at $6206.00. Help me make even more of a difference! Please feel free to pass this on to any of your contacts and donate if you would like! I am leaving the page open until April 27th one week after the race.
Heading in to race weekend here are a couple quotes of motivation to leave you with! (check my twitter @TORunningChiro for more)
“Whether you think you can or you can’t- you’re right.” -Henry Ford
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” -Steve Prefontaine
“You must expect great things from yourself before you can do them.” -Michael Jordan
“All it takes is all you got!” -Marc Davis
Happy training!! And BEST of LUCK to everyone else running the BOSTON MARATHON this Monday see you Hopkinton!
Toronto Running Chiro 