7 Days Left

Around this time (8:45) 7 days from now the STWM will begin. Already I feel some nerves and definitely the incidence of nighttime dreams about the marathon have increased. I already had one really weird dream where I started with my favorite bright-green adidas adios, which I have worn for 5 races this year (4 half marathons and one 30k), and countless tempo runs/ intervals on the track - only God knows how many miles are on those shoes because I stopped counting after the first few 4 months. It was destiny that we met, hidden underneath a table in the clearance section, only one left and it happened to be a size 8.5. And despite the fact that the outsole near the toes is completely worn down (my toes are practically touching the ground), I love everything about these shoes. In fact, that tempo run I had planned on Friday night with my Dad (who may have to start charging me for all the pace work, and hydration delivery he has done during my build) was done in my green shoes. We kept marathon pace - 3:38-3:39 for 14k and it felt pretty comfortable even though it was night at night and I always run a little slower at night. Anyways so in the dream, I ran the first half in my green shoes probably because I thought they could only last the the halfway, and then met my Dad who quickly gave me the new purple adios 2.0. Unfortunately, for some reason I was having a hard time putting the shoes on and tying the laces, and with people beginning to pass me as I was frantically trying to get the shoes tied, I was getting extremely frustrated. Can't entirely remember what happened after that, and I'm not a psychologist or anything, even though I have taken a bunch of sports psychology courses, but maybe it is a sign that I should do everything in my power to search the depths of the world wide web for some store somewhere that carries the original adios (and yes I even have looked on japanese websites - used the google translate function to try and find these iconic shoes).

But purple shoes or barefoot I am ready for STWM. I have never been this excited for a race before. In the past, I have laid my head down at night in the week leading up to the race and thought, "Have I done everything that I need to do to be successful." This time around I feel not only have I done what I needed, but I have done more. My body is absorbing the training really well this time around as well. My philosophy this year was basically to push my body to the brink of destruction and then pull myself back, recover, and race hard. The workouts now are so exhilarating because of the slight cutback in mileage. Sure after today's run, which I'm going on in a few minutes, it will be 150km on the week which it still alot, but considering I was running more than 200 for 2 months straight with a 230kilometer in there, it is a big cutback. You see during the majority of the build, you are physically and mentally exhausted. It is now, during your final few workouts that you can really see all the hard work paying off. So I'm ready, one more week to go, probably one workout left to do on wednesday (a pyramid to deplete my liver/muscle glycogen), and another 100k or so (maybe 100 including the marathon, I will finalize my plan today for the weekly quota). Good luck in your final week to all, fuel right (carb load properly - it is a 7 day process not a 24 hour), and stay hydrated.