Feeling Ready

4 weeks away from marathon race day, I have completed two very important workouts over the past two days that have given me a good indication of my fitness level going into the Fargo Marathon. With yesterday being Good Friday, I had the day off of work and took advantage by going home to Coon Rapids and did my interval workout on my home high school track. It was a modified version of the famous Yasso 800s workout. Instead of doing 10x800m, I did 10x1000m the same way. I did this to challenge myself a bit more and to see if my body could take it. I found out yesterday that it could. I averaged 3:24 for the 10x1000m, with my fastest being 3:23 and the slowest being 3:27. I was very consistent and I know it was about where I needed to be to attain the goal of the traditional Yasso 800s workout. Had I done the traditional workout, my 800 splits were between 2:43 and 2:45 for all of them, so based on the workout, that tells me I should be capable of running around 2:45 or just under for the marathon (doing 1000s probably tells me I could have done 2:40-2:43 for just 800s).

Today for a follow-up, I did what will end up being my last 20+ mile run. I did a tour de Coon Rapids, hitting nearly every area of the city this morning. The final distance measured out to be 20.5 miles and I maintained a pace of 7:10 for the run. Considering I was sore from the intervals on Friday I was very happy with it. I stopped only once for water at the Coon Rapids Dam by the Mississippi River (I did not drink from the river though) and took an energy gel there as well.

My final significant test of my training before the tapering begins will be a week from today when I run the Earth Day Half-Marathon (link on the right side). If all goes well, I will be feeling really good about the marathon coming up. I have also posted a list of all the races I have run so far in 2009 and the races I am preliminarily planning to run this summer and next fall. It is just a rough plan and it certainly could change but it is my ideal list of races at this point so far.

For you midwest marathoners, registration for the 2009 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon opens on Friday, April 17th at 12:01am. It fills fast so register as soon as you can. I'll be registering the moment I wake up on Friday morning!

It's finally feeling like spring this Easter weekend. Enjoy the weather and the running but don't forget why we celebrate Easter in the first place. God Bless and Happy Easter everyone!