Race week is upon us! Grandma's here we come!

The long anticipated Grandma's marathon is finally almost here. It's been quite the journey getting to this point this year. I had to deal with some knee pain and tendinitis back in February and March. Then we went on to perform quite nicely at the Rock the Parkway half marathon in KC in mid-April. Following that, we ventured into some very high mileage for the two of us. We had 6+ weeks of 70+ miles and had 3 of those weeks in the 80's and one of them at 90.  Our long runs were solid, and our workouts were even better. The only major drawback in the last few weeks has been my hand incident during our 24 miler and of course having to battle the humid conditions.

Last weekend, we went out to the Willard track (first time going there), and completed our last major speed session. On the schedule, we were set to run twenty 400's.  We break it down into sets of 4 with a 200m jog recovery and then a 400m jog recovery between each set.  Each set was also slated to get faster and faster starting out with 78's and working down to 75's. When we started, it was already very hot and muggy so I wasn't completely sure how it would go. Much to my surprise and satisfaction, we ran the entire first set at 77.  Then we dropped it down to 76's, and then 75's for the final couple sets. We usually like to finish with a last one-fast one but I thought for sure we were going to be spent prior to our last one. The last one capped off a great workout with us solidly finishing in 72.

Many people ask me if I get nervous for races.  The simple answer is 'Yes'. I explain it mostly as being nervous that somehow things won't go as planned and that the entire focus of the last couple months might feel like it was a waste.  However, the more likely scenario is that the better trained you are, the better chance you have to actually reach your goals. I find that those that put in the work, typically get the results.  Having talent, but not putting in the training, doesn't get you anywhere.

This week is a laid back week for the most part. We have a small tune-up workout tomorrow and then it's just some really short runs and getting plenty of fluids and rest for the remainder of the week.

Kimi in Beast-mode @ Willard Track