The first week of the taper, here is the breakdown:

9/29 - 6 Miles Easy
9/30 - 5 Miles Easy
10/01 - 11 Miles
10/02 - 5 Miles with 12*100M Striders
10/03 - 5 Miles Easy
10/04 - 17 Miles on The High Line Canal Trail
10/05 - 7 Miles, with 3 Miles at Marathon Race Pace, 6:40 Pace

56 Miles Total

Solid week, felt great, strong, motivated, et al. All my runs were pretty easy, a few striders on Thursday to get the legs used to some quick turnover and then today I ran a few miles at marathon race pace, to ensure that I know what 6:40 pace feels like. This was the first weekend in a while that I did not race, felt nice to be able to wake up this weekend and not feel rushed.

This week, I will hit 42 Miles for the second week of the taper, or 60% of weekly peak miles. Most of the runs will be easy with some further sharpening. I should also clarify, a few months ago I said that I was using Pete Pfitzinger’s Road Racing for Serious Runners but I didn’t really pay attention to it after that initial week. What I took from the book was the longer midweek run of 13-14 miles, but my long runs were longer than what the book dictated and since I was racing almost every weekend, I generally altered the “hard” workout with some other type of LT/Tempo workout, during the week.

I’ve started reading Brad Hudon’s Run Faster in bits and pieces. I should qualify something, I read quite a bit, normally I’m good for about 50 books per year, but this year has taken a nose dive with the launch of my website and I’ve been reading a lot more magazines, et al. instead. I have a bad habit of reading several books at a time, I normally have a book at work, a book on my nightstand, and a third book that might be in my car, work bag, etc.

Back to Run Faster, it’s probably a mistake to start reading a book like Run Faster when you’re undergoing a taper. Brad’s theory of training and non-linear periodization is a bit different than what most of the other Runner’s World endorsed BS is out there. Thus, I start reading it and start questioning my training and then I think maybe I should use the taper in this book, etc. Since I haven’t used a true training plan yet, I’m not going to start now. However, I will probably use Hudson’s plan next year for a marathon and I am still thinking that in the first part of the year, next year, that I am going to keep my mileage between 40-50mpw and try to introduce a lot more quality to my workouts than what I have been doing in the past few months, instead of volume.

Two weeks until the Denver Marathon, I’m getting excited.

Also, if anyone wants to race the Run the Rocks 5k I have a free entry, just contact me. I think I am going to run the race, but plan on taking it really easy, marathon race pace.