"The hay is in the barn..."

...and I don't think it has gone mouldy.

Metaphorically speaking, "the hay was in the barn" after I did my longest training run 3 weeks ago. There is little, if any, muscle that is going to be built while tapering. The goal is to "keep the hay from going mouldy" by doing gradually shorter runs and let the muscle damage heal.

So today's tempo run wasn't about speed or endurance -- it was just about keeping me from going stale.

It went very well. Coach Brian said 5 to 6 miles, so I chose 5. And he said no more than 2 at 'tempo pace' (7:30/mile), and so that is what I did. Here are my splits:

8:15
8:14
8:14
7:29
7:29

At all target paces, I had to slow myself down. The first three miles I simply couldn't seem to go as slow as the 8:20/mile pace I was targeting.

Sooooo... I'm ready. We'll see how it all goes on race day!