Back in the game! Recovery run

While the taper weeks are designed for recovery and resting - it still feels uncomfortable to become sick. It was in the air already, all three of my girls were sick earlier and that got up to me. Asides from the psycial aspect, I also got a big mental dip due an unrelated event that triggered old pain. Safe to say that it was a difficult week, but I am still here and I am feeling much better (both physically aswell as mentally).

With just 2 weeks to go before my race I returned with a short recovery run today. My goal was simple - to stay in low heartrate <142 bpm and feel if I was indeed getting better again! The run felt easy, my heartrate stayed comfortable and the legs felt fresh.

In order to keep myself from pushing to early, I decided to skip the strides for today (and save the tempo elements for tomorrow), next to that I dressed myself with multiple layers. Overall it felt good!

This is also what the taper weeks are all about, allowing the body to recover. While this trainingsblock was already a little short, I did provide some quality work - so the few days I didn’t run last week won’t do any harm! It will be alright!

Looking forward I am working on my race day pacing plan. Whereas I normally prefer to do a KISS (keep it simple stupid) strategy and run at constant pace, Spijkenisse is know for long open roads with a lot of strong wind in the opening phase. Sticking to 4:15 / km in headwind early would most likely get back at me at the final kilometers.

Most likely I will try to scout the first part of the marathon next week and determine if I will stick to KISS-strategy or adapt to a more flexible strategy (headwind 4:15 - 4:20), tailwind (4:10 - 4:15), (side wind 4:15). If I can find the time I also hope to run the last 10km 2 maybe 3 times before the race - as I can then just autopilot it during the race!

Fun week ahead!

Happy running