Cango Marathon: Final Training and Taper

It's almost time! I'm excited and I'm also a little nervous. I know I'll do the distance, but what kind of time will I manage?

Not that I'm too worried about cut-off for this first marathon in 15 months. My main goal is to cross the finish line in good shape. But I'd like to do so in a reasonable time if at all possible. I guess I'll know the answer to that when I cross the finish line next weekend Saturday...

I have officially started my taper. I'm still running, but I'm slowly cutting back on the distance, to give my legs and feet a chance to rest and recover from the vigourous training and racing they've been put through these last few weeks. I survived Red Hill 36km, and a 26km training run this past weekend, so I'm set for distance training. Now it's time to make sure I'm well rested for the big day.

I'm still training with my FiveFingers. This morning I pushed their max-distance up a further km to make 12km the longest single run in my 'toes', and a total of 45km on the shoes. They're catching up to my Nike's!! 

I can feel my legs becomming more accustomed to the barefoot style, and as a result a little more resistant to my regular shoes. I think the time has come to start increasing their mileage to Half Marathon, and then up. I'd survive a 15km run in them at this point, I just need to actually do it! Then 18-ish km, then take them for their first half-marathon distance run/race. After that I guess another 25km training run is in order - barefoot style of course! And slowly get that distance up to marathon! I don't know if I'll be able to do all that by the end of April, for Outeniqua Marathon. But I should be there by July, when I may or may no tackle Knysna Marathon (I'm entered for the Half, I'll upgrade at registration if I feel up to the challenge!) The most important thing is to switch over completely to barefoot running. Use my Nikes for comfy 'whenever' shoes (after a good wash of course, this past weekend's long run included some trail which altered the colouring of the shoes a little!)

This past weekend I ran 26km with some friends.

This was our route and [scary] profile:

That was my last LONG run before Cango.

This morning I ran 12km in my FiveFingers (a little chaffing from being absolutely soaked from rain/puddles but otherwise feeling amazingly comfy all the way, even the stones are bothering me less when I step on them!) You can find the stats of that run on the Dean Street Hillbillies blog.

Thursday I'll do 8-10km - including a few last hills.

Tuesday next week will be 5-8km - flat!

Thursday REST.

Friday drive and register.

Saturday RUN!

I guess I should start keeping an eye on the weather forecast for Oudtshoorn as of this weekend. At the moment it's #%^%@ HOT out there, but we all know how fickle the weather can be, so I won't despair until I'm out on the road, halfway through the race, and the sun is beating down on my head. By which time despairing will get me nowhere so I may as well just 'shurrup and run', to quote a friend!

Good luck to those running Cango/Weskus/anything else!!! Especially to those using these marathons to qualify for Two Oceans!! Good luck and enjoy!