TITLE: Taper Almost Finished
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: September 26, 2006  5:54 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I am now almsot 2.5 weeks into my three-week taper that
ends with the
<A HREF="http://www.mtcmarathon.org/">
   Twin Cities Marathon</A>
on Sunday.  The two weeks before this one saw me cut back to
41 miles each, ending last Sunday with a relatively easy
10-miler on an out-and-back trail route.  I did run 1.5 miles
at goal pace on the way back, but for most of the time I took
it easy.

This last week is the easiest of all.  I took Monday off, and
then this morning I ran one hour at goal pace.  One of the
marathon coaches I've read recommends this for the Tuesday
of the last week; the goal is to get one last bit of marathon-pace
work in, without overdoing either time or speed, while at the
same time emptying the body's glycogen stores for fueling up
this week.  I'll run light and slow Wednesday through Friday,
just enough to stay loose and keep my mind on task.  Good
rest is my goal.

As I noted in my
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2006-09.html#e2006-09-16T13_48_35.htm">
   previous update</A>,
in some ways I find the well-known "carbo load" of the last
week to be among my biggest challenges.  You'd think that
eating would be easy, right?  But eating the right things
at the right times throughout the week seems tough.  At
least I don't have to worry about taking on too many calories...
or do I?
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