Week of 13/4 ; Last week

Final week - keeping the workouts short - 35% of normal and trying to maintain the intensity of a normal week in keeping with the idea of peaking rather than tapering which usually feels like a long slow death...

Monday: 5.24km Tempo @ 3:49 HR 171 Ca90 1°C 42% NW14/20. Set on on a frigid morning for a short tempo effort up past the art museum to the end of the famous row houses and back (map). Felt a little stiff at first because of the shortish warmup and the fact that it was very cold - the first half was run into a stiff breeze which made it feel icy cold. Felt good on the way back with a tailwind and more downhill. I have to say there are a lot more 'joggers' out here - by that I mean folks who are out running but move barely faster than walking. In Perth we get runners and walkers but don't tend to see too much of this strange hybrid. I also get a few strange looks out in my shorts and short sleeves and all the local runners are rugged up in trackpants, hoodies, etc. All up 8km today.

Tuesday: No running today ; it was cold and wet outside and all I wanted was a short recovery so I went for 20 minutes on the gym bike with a couple of intervals instead. I've been having a few problems with my right sartorious/vastus medialis so a rest day isn't a bad idea anyhow. Wierd thing yesterday, I got a black nail on my left index toe. What happened ? All of a sudden my shoes are too small ? I know you get all sorts of phantom 'injuries' in the taper but this is driving me nuts!

Wednesday: 6.11km @4:24 HR 154 Ca87 8°C NE25. Short progression run (easy to MP) on a miserable rainy, windy morning from the hotel to the Art Museum & back (map). Didn't feel the toe too badly which is good, but the left quad is still niggly - I'm a little concerned but am hopeful yet that it will sort itself out by Monday. Felt really good otherwise and was cracking along very comfortably.


Thursday: Still experiencing sharp nervy pains in the left quad and the piriformis is acting up (they are related) ; stretching, massaging, stretching to try and get it all ready. It's a bit of a downer because apart from this I'm feeling raring to go, the best I've ever felt in a taper week. Didn't run today because I want to give this the best chance to heal. I'll play it by ear tomorrow. Forecast for Monday ain't great .- temp is perfect, but the wind....E33/53! PS. See Epi's 'Taper madness' entry - it applies here.

Friday: 5.31km @4:21 HR 153 Ca89 4°C 32% N13. After a bit of self-debate I headed out on a chilly but lovely morning for a short one to test out the sartorius etc. (map). Felt pretty good apart from the frustratingly persistent niggle. Did about 4k's of MP pretty comfortably after a warmup. I may not be able to fit in a run tomorrow because we're up to Boston on the Amtrak, meeting Sas on the train at NY. Then it's off to the expo to pick up the number and to try not to melt the old credit card. The butterflies are starting to flutter.... BTW I've decided I don't like Accuweather, I'm going with weather.com - much better forecast...

Saturday/Sunday: Last two days ; decided not to run to give the body a chance to heal before the big day. The expo was great - lots of samples (some good, some not so good - Clif jellies- yuck!) and good deals.  Atmosphere was tense but pretty happy - it felt great to get the number and there's a poster for the race that has every entrant's name printed on it wich is pretty cool! There are blue Boston/09 jackets everywhere around town and a lot of folks with jackets from other years too - some big names at the expo - Grete  Weitz, Frank Shorter, Kathrine Switzer, Ryan Hall, to name a few. Getting nervous now - it's going to be cold and windy but the crowd's going to be great and I'm soooo looking forward to this.....