April 13 – 5 days and counting : It’s about doing less now; the training is pretty much done.

April 13: Scheduled – easy 2 x 800m at 4 min/km after 2km warm-up.
Actual – once again, exactly as scheduled.
Seems that everyone I speak to can’t believe that it’s almost time for the big race and I’m thinking, it seems like it’s been a long time since I started out on this particular journey. As they say, perspective is everything and even though it was a relatively easy marathon training plan, there have been a lot of miles put in since Christmas, a lot of cold miles!
Speaking of cool, the spring like weather here in Calgary (there, I said ‘spring’ again) faded away quickly after the balmy highs of +12C on the weekend and Wednesday, even though a sunny day, was one where the mercury had trouble ticking all of +1C on the thermometer. No matter though as the paths were clear and the workout hardly that, a workout. Of course what the taper is all about is doing less, it’s about “under-doing” rather than over-doing. At this point, one can’t cram like it’s a mid-term final that one hasn’t even cracked the textbook a day or two out. The work has really been done; now it’s simply a case of rest, recovery and a bit of keeping the legs, lungs and mind tuned. Nothing approaching real exertion, more like simply keeping the bugs out and staying in the right frame of mind for running.

Once I was down along the river and into the second of the 800m repeats, it seemed the run was all over before /i really got started. Perfect! Back up the hill and home, I was at least feeling that I was ready – maybe not nearly as fast or strong as I once was but then again, it’s about perspective. And running this particular marathon will provide me with my own unique perspective, just as it will for the other 27000 runners: it’s a personal thing. Thanks for letting me share some of that perspective with you. Now it’s 5 more sleeps....