The Training's Done

First...a note to self

I just finished up my last "real" run of my marathon training.  I ran a little harder than I had planned, but given that the pinnacle is 3 days away, I wanted to push a little more to unleash some tension.  I limited myself to 30 minutes, 10 of which was warm up, and then went 20 minutes into the anaerobic zone.  I kept from getting too carried away, but settled into a good 8.5-9.0 mph pace for about 2 miles, before settling back into an 7.5/8.5 stride/recover sequence over the final mile.

I spent a good 20 minutes (at least) stretching out afterward, concentrating on the quads. I was tempted to a little light circuit work, but I chose instead to do the stretching.  I've neglected that of late and I can tell that I've lost a little bit of flexibility.  The recent stretching I've done could explain the increase in DOM soreness I noticed and couldn't explain recently.  If that's true, then I expect I'll feel a little stiff tomorrow and probably Saturday, given the amount of stretching I did today, post run.

The focus of the next 60 hours is rest and proper nutrition/hydration.  The only running I have planned is a light workout on Saturday morning of 20-30 minutes trail running.  Other than a few acceleration gliders, I'll keep it slow and relaxing.  The point is to get the nerves out and meditate a little on how I've done the training and just need to trust that it has done its job.

I'm going to start shifting my sleep cycle to the earlier hours, starting tonight.  By Saturday night, I want to hit the rack as early as 8 so that my Circadian rhythm won't be p.o.'ed when I'm waking myself up at 3AM on Sunday morning.  That's right...3AM.  I want to be down at Qualcomm Stadium by 4 so that I don't have to sweat the shuttle bus lines to the start village.  I'm also resigned to the reality of potty lines.  As much as I'd like to take care of that business before leaving home, it ain't gonna happen.

Going to the expo tomorrow.  Can't wait.