Okay, now that I have your attention, let me explain myself. Tapering is most assuredly not for chumps, and is practically a requirement for running a good marathon. But I am not going to taper for the Newport Marathon on June 1st. Why not, you may ask? Because my training has been so sporadic and minimal, that a taper would make no sense, given the lack of volume I am running right now.
Consider: before most marathons, I typically log at least 50mpw, and usually over 70mpw in the 12 weeks leading up to the race. The race is just a few weeks away now, and I have been barely averaging 30 miles per week so far this year. So rather than decrease my mileage even further, I am actually going to try to stay around 40-45mpw for these next few weeks in an attempt to glean just a bit more fitness out of myself. Anything under 50 is still a pretty good decrease from my typical pre-marathon mileage, so I’m not concerned about being fatigued.
To keep current with my goal of qualifying for Boston in every state, I now have to run a 2:59 at Newport. I have done 18 and 20 mile long runs the past two weekends, both with a few miles at the end at 6:50 pace, and they actually didn’t feel too bad. So I’m hoping that I can squeak out a 2:59 without having to dig to deep into the well. And if I can’t, well, that just means I have to go back to Oregon sometime in the future!
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