Taper Time

In just over a week, I'll be back racing for my first outing in 3 months. I'll be heading over to Tokyo to run the new 6th Major . I've never tried a marathon this early in the year before and I must say that it hasn't been easy preparing in the warmer months. The preparation has been uninterrupted, which  is nice, but certainly hasn't been easy. I've had some great sessions and some crap ones. Typically once the temp gets above the mid 20's and / or the humidity is high, I pretty much know in advance that its going to be a slog. I just don't handle these conditions well at all. Recognising my weakness, I've just run these sessions to heart rate and don't even look at the pace on my garmin. 

Leading up to this race I've loosely followed an old school Lydiard periodisation approach, with an emphasis on quality longer runs in particular. There's been very little in the way of VO2 interval sessions, but plenty of hills early on, a weekly strides session and weekly tempo session or marathon paced session up to 25 km's. All in all, I'm pleased with how I've prepared and am now just excited to get out and race again. It's always great fun to combine my love of travel and running. I haven't been to Tokyo before so am excited to see a new place. It's even more exciting to be bringing my girlfriend Samantha along. For me there's nothing more motivating than having her there holding onto my grandfathers old stetson hat at the race start / finish.