Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Tahoe Triple Tapering

Day 1 of the Tahoe Triple is a week from tomorrow. We leave this Friday. I'm packing all sorts of clothing, GU packets, 4 for a buck powerbars, bandaids, vaseline, etc. etc. Hope I'm not leaving anything out that I'll need.

I'm limiting myself to one 20-miler this week (yesterday), so it must be taper time. For most of the summer I averaged high seventies for weekly mileage, and included two or more long runs per week. I only ran about 67 miles last week, and after today's and Friday's 11-milers, I'll have fifty-some for this week. I feel like I'm as ready as I can possibly be. I think I can handle the distance, and probably the hills. The Tahoe altitude is the only unknown for me. It'll cause a slowdown; the only question is how much.

Someone asked about my goals. My initial reaction was: Goals? I need to have goals? What's up with that?? But then I thought about it and came up with some:

1) Start each run (this may be problematical for days 2 and 3.
2) Stay vertical for the three runs (also problematical - especially after reading about Helen Klein).
3) Actually cross the finish line each day (problematical, of course).
4) If I can accomplish goals 1-3, it would be nice to do each marathon in the 3:30 to 4:00 range. This is based on my measly training at sea level. If it's not to be, that's ok too.

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