This was the training week that wasn’t.  Midway through Monday morning my stomach started feeling very unsettled.  I ended up leaving work, and basically spending the next day and a half in bed with the flu.  I was up and around the rest of the week, but ended up not running at all until Saturday when I finally started feeling better.  The good news was that this was planned to be a light week in terms of running anyway.

I planned on taking Monday and Tuesday off after Sunday’s long run and before my last race of the Aktiv Trail Race Series on Wednesday night.  I ended up skipping the race – my body was feeling beat down and exhausted, I had enough overall points already, and I figured I would do myself more harm if I raced.  Instead I cheered on my wife and took lots of pictures!

I finally got out for a run on Saturday.  I had planned a 10km road run but ended up doing about 13km.  I felt surprisingly good, and focused on a consistent, slower than tempo pace.

Sunday was my long run (tapered version) which meant 25km on the trails.  We ended up heading down to a kids amusement park in the late morning, so my run didn’t happen until late afternoon at which point I had about 4 hours of park walking in my legs!  Regardless I headed out and got it done.  My legs weren’t quite as fast as I might have liked and I found myself doubting my goal for my race pace in a couple of weeks.

Some pretty long shadows by the time I was out on my long run!

So in the end I got in a couple decent runs, and didn’t miss a whole lot while I was sick.  I also took the opportunity to remind myself that things like illness happen and I didn’t let it worry me too much in terms of race preparation.  Missing a few days on the schedule isn’t the end of the world, and at the end of the day it doesn’t make any different in my life whether I am first or last come race day!

For week #12 I am still in taper mode.  I have the following planned:

• Monday: rest day
• Tuesday: 16km road run
• Wednesday: 10km road run
• Thursday: rest day
• Friday: 10km road run
• Saturday: Road bike ride? or rest day
• Sunday: 25km trail run

Basically these couple of taper weeks are lower in terms of volume, but I plan on pushing a bit higher intensity to keep the HR up.  In some cases (like the 25km run) I plan to focus on pacing since this is going to be my biggest challenge on race day.  Its getting close!

Thanks for reading… I am feeling ready and hoping my goal of 4:10 isn’t too ambitious!  I’ve decided not to change it – its definitely going to be a stretch to make it under that time, but thats what goals are for!