Fartleks and Tapering

For the first time in my memory, Gilbert is really cutting us back this week before the Buda 30k, so this week is a true taper week. The 800's on Tuesday were at a relaxed pace, and today's fartlek workout (10 x 1:00 minute accelerations with 1:00 easy running in between) was supposed to be at 60-70% effort, just enough to get a little snap in the legs.

The weather was blustery, with temps a reasonable 49 degrees, but with a very strong wind throughout that dropped the chill down much lower than that. The wind was strong enough that it slowed us running into it. The warmup and drills were fine, and then we set out for the fartlek workout. My group was Henry, Amy and myself. We did take it easier than normal, and cruised through the workout pretty smoothly. After a brief jog across Auditorium Shores, we joined Gilbert for the form work festivities. We did 6x100m striders, which felt pretty good. Then, we did a bunch of Gilbert's form drills, which for the first time really felt okay to me. These drills aren't like the warmup drills that we do, but are more pure formwork about balance and coordination. After a good bit of that, we did some fast feet hopping just to fully shake things out. Then, an abbreviated stretching session.

It was a nice workout, just enough to get the blood moving without wiping us out. Total day about 4.5 miles, 9:00/mile average pace overall. The fartlek section was much slower than usual, but that was intentional.

I felt under the weather yesterday, and did not do the scheduled workout. The minor sore throat is largely gone today, so I think it was a good idea to bag the Wednesday workout after all. Tomorrow is a full day off, and I'll go down and drive the 30k course. Saturday is our super easy 4 mile run and stretching ritual, and Sunday is the big race. The current weather report is more promising that previously thought...lows in the 30's, warming to 40's by race's end. I'm just hoping the big wind isn't blowing like it usually does at Buda.