Time to watch what I eat!

7 days to go now & time to really back off. This is always a time where I tend to be a bit on edge and eat too much. I wouldn't say I eat any more than usual, but I do need to watch what I eat and how much of it, especially given that over the final week I don't do much running.  I've always run every day for the final week leading up to the marathon and I don't envisage this week being any different. Usually I do around 40-60 km's in the 6 days before the marathon, but I'm going to do a little less this time. This marathon preparation has been quite short, only 14 weeks, but in reality only 11-12 weeks as I eased up the week before C2S. Apart from reducing the mileage of my long run and mid-week long run, I haven't really tapered this week. 98 km's for the week, which is about normal for me before a marathon, however in every previous marathon I have been tapering down from an average mileage of 130-160 km's and not 110 km's. Given that I haven't really tapered much, this week I will make sure I do very little. The plan is:

Monday -20 mins jogging;
Tuesday - Progression run, 3 km's jogging, 3 km's easy, 3 km's marathon pace, 3 km's jogging;
Wednesday - 20 mins jogging;
Thursday - 5 x 30 seconds;
Friday - 20 mins jogging;
Saturday - 15 -20 mins jogging.

In total, I'd estimate around 35 km's pre-race.

It will be interesting to see how I go in the race, as this preparation has been so different. The main differences being:

- Low mileage (due to ditching doubles);
- Only 2 races (C2S & W2B 35 km trail race);
- Lots of longer tempo stuff (up to 12 km's);
- Usually I would do a 20 km, 25 km & 30 km marathon pace run in the second last month before the race, but this time I haven't done these;
- Usually I would try and follow the Lydiard periodisation concept of building a base, doing either a hill rep phase or hilly runs, then speed endurance, then peaking and then tapering. The best way to describe this preparation would be to say that I started with decent speed (relative to my ability), slowly built the endurance and speed endurance as I go and then a crash taper and race.

I recognise that I've lost some speed, but I'm not sure how much. I've backed off the effort a little in most tempo runs & interval sessions. My last 10 km race was a 34:20 PB back on June 4, followed by 3 km & 5 km races leading up to the GC Half on 3 July. It would've be handy to have done a recent 10 km race to get a little bit of a read on where I am at, but maybe it's better that I simply don't know.

Anyway, no looking back from here.

Today I did end up going a bit longer than the planned 1 hour easy. 20 km's in 89 mins, it felt pretty cruisy and I've pulled up fine.

Watched the Grand Final today. My team, the mighty Penrith Panthers, weren't playing so I didn't have much enthusiasm for the game. In fact, I fell asleep during the second half and woke up for the last 10 mins. The better team probably won, well from what I saw anyway. Like most people, I tend to follow my team and whoever is playing Manly, but I must say they were probably the more deserved winner given their consistent form all year. I think the Warriors have much to look forward to though with the strength of their playing roster and talent coming through. Not a bad effort to have all 3 grades playing on G/F day. I'm just stoked that we've (the panthers that is) nabbed the warriors coach for next season. Hopefully he can produce the goods with the panthers.