Thursday morning training report.

Thurdays training report;
Short run today only 6.28 miles in 1:05:15.18.
Hardest part of the entire run was a 582 foot climb in 1.54 miles.

Finally looked at the hill profiles for the Marine Corps Marathon yesterday. in the first 3 miles I climb to almost 140 feet, drop back down to about 60 feet by the 6 mile mark and climb to 160 by the 8 mile mark. drop down to an average of 10 to 25 feet till the 22 mile mark, climb to just under 40 feet at the 25 mile mark back down to about 20 at 26 miles with a final climb of 60 feet for the last two tenths of a mile.

I was laughing at myself when I saw how easy the climbs will be in comparison to what I've been doing for training. I'm just hoping for cool & overcast conditions on race day.

Another advantage it appears I'll have on race day is there will be food stations, in addition to water and aid stations. While Powerade will be the supplied beverage in addition to water, I've been running on body fat stores for almost all my long runs except for one. That was one of my beter runs too. So with my fat a r s e accustomed to running 20+ miles on thin gatorade, about a 60% to 70% mix vs the reccommended 100% mix which I found too strong for my liking; I think I'm in better shape than I knew.

Now its just a matter of going easy on my taper runs. I'm still weighing heavily the 1,123 foot climb as part of my last 8 mile run before the marathon. And that would be the last of my long climbing runs before the marathon the following week too.
For the marathon itself, I just need to be mindful of how I start out and continue along. I need to be easy and steady start through finish and not caught up in any mad dash due to excitement or adrenaline rush. As I'm sure I will be switching to stoic mode by the 24 mile mark at the latest. As I know how my muscles burn when deprived of energy stores.

Well there it is what I've done and some of what I am looking forward to over the next week & a half.

OK today's training run is done, laundry is done, breakfast is done. It must be time to get off the computer and break out the bagpipes for practice. Playing with Joe Brady Sr. and a few other students at the State veterans Home on the 11th of November and I'd like to be mentally prepared for that as well.

Cheers & prosit alles, I may post more later today as this is an early posting at 10:00 AM. Have a safe day & week.

Q