Time: 4 hours
Distance: 40 kilometers (25 miles)
Comments: A busted training week due to travel back from Peru. I wanted to get in a few miles more but I didn't feel pushing any single workout was worth it. It's taper-time, the last thing I want right now is a race-killing injury. The change in climate - from Lima's bone chilling humidity to Arizona's scorching dryness - has been pretty brutal but I hope it's a good transition for more temperate conditions in Australia. If I can avoid illness due to the curve balls I'm throwing at my metabolism, I should be fine. I'm feeling strong in my legs and I'm trying to keep the carbohydrates up in my diet. And, of course, trying not to freak out too much about the race itself...Injury update: There has been stiffness in my lower legs but not much more than that. The new shoes seem to be working quite well and, I assume, the lack of hills in the runs is taking stress off the calves some.
Between the scheduled cutback and the mid-week journey to down under it will be nigh-impossible to have a consistent week of running. But, that should be OK given this is the serious cutback week. My main concern is spacing my runs well so I stay fresh and there isn't a long layoff of work. By now, I'm pretty much convinced that the complete absence of workouts in anticipation of the January marathon was a key factor to my abysmal performance. So I'm trying to be on the pavement at least every other day and pounding down the carbohydrates when I'm not.The biggest problem will be the 19 hours en transit. That's a lot of time to be on my ass.