Sunday, September 23, 2007

7 More Sleeps Until Race Day!

Yes, I'm starting (already) to get a bit nervous. My legs are twitching when I go to bed at night. I'm dreaming of the race and previous races. I'm dreaming of running in Boston. Very weird.

Today I just had to do another 6 mile run, targeting an 8:40/mile pace according to the Runners World chart. But this time I tried something I had yet to do in all of my training: actually stick to the chart's target easy run pace!

It wasn't easy, but as I got a feel for the speed of doing between 8:30 and 8:40 per mile I settled into a rhythm. I worked on my running style -- shoulders low, arms pumping forwards and back (not side-to-side), breathing easy, leaning forward from the ankles, and pretending the ground was a treadmill that I needed to push backwards. I repeated my mantras of "Conserve, conserve, conserve" -- and I added a new one that Tori gave me for my last full week of training: "Don't get hurt!"

The run went quite well and I stayed within my range of 8:30 to 8:40 the whole way. At just 27 miles of training, this has been my shortest mileage week of my training thus far. I must say that I have a love-hate relationship with it. My body feels like I should be doing more, but my mind is saying, "Take a Valium, dude". Relax -- enjoy the rest, and prepare mentally for the big day. So far, everything looks good.

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