It was the best of weeks, it was the worst of weeks

So, officially we enter the taper.

On the whole, my training for the last three weeks has been great. I
have just about given myself the best chance to run a four hour marathon
that I can manage. When we last spoke I was in the middle of a 74K week.
Since then I have run 76 and 79.8K weeks.

The 79.8K needs some explaining. I was sitting on about 45.5K going into
Sunday, and I went to the SMC 30K with the intention of running a long
warm up to get the extra Ks. The race went well - 30K in about 3:08; a
good solid training run. At the end the Garmin read 34K and I said to
myself, "mmm, another 500m and it's an 80K week", so I ran back to the
sheds and until the Garmin read 35K. When I got home Sportstracks
reinterpreted the run down to 34.3 and the week at 79.8K, and so again I
said to myself: "that's what you get for being a wanker!" So it's a
79.8K week.

Last week being Easter we took the family to Mackay. I ran on the Friday
morning before we left, and it was one of the best speedwork sessions of
my life. I had 6 * 500m planned. So after my warm up I ran 500m in just
under 2 minutes. Prior to this session I had only run one sub 2:00 500m
in my life and in the following effort I fell in a crumpled vomiting
heap after 250m. This time I followed it with another sub 2:00 effort
and then another. The party was over after that and I finished with
2:07, 2:06 & 2:04, but I felt good for the rest of the day.

In Mackay John and I met Des's grandmother (John's great-grandmother)
for the first time. This was also our first meeting for several other
family members, and I knew it was going to be full on from when we got
there on Friday afternoon when we left to Sunday afternoon when we
headed home. So I packed my gear for a run, knowing that Des's uncle
runs a bit, but he had been struck down by the flu. I almost had a
coronary when I discovered that I would be spending the weekend with a
flu carrier 3 weeks out from the marathon, but I didn't get too sick. I
got a bit of a tickle in my throat and a bit of lethargy, but no cold or
flu. I also didn't get a run in.

On Monday I felt a bit rough, but I thought I was OK to do the long run
that I should have done on Sunday. I was wrong. This was 33K of utter
garbage. At no point did I feel on top of my game, and I had to take
walk breaks on numerous occasions. I covered 33K in 3 hours and 45
minutes and felt like death warmed up for the rest of the day. I just
wasn't up for it.

I must be a bit better now: Marlz and I went out for a 13K run this
morning at close to marathon pace, and whilst I didn't feel great it was
a whole lot better than Monday.

So three weeks to go, and if I can stay out of trouble I should be able
to get close on the day. Bring it on!