5 days to go / 600 miles of training / "taper madness"!

Well, 5 days to go! I had a short 5 mile run yesterday and felt pretty good. I think I'm ready!

With yesterday's run I've now logged over 600 miles of running since February 12th, 2008. That's enough mileage to wear out two pairs of running shoes. That's all the way to Los Angeles... and half way back again...;)

I've been experiencing a bit of "taper madness". I've been alternating between excitement and complete dread of this weekend's event. At times I feel like I'm going to have a great run; at other times I'm worried that I'm going to totally choke and have a miserable last 6 miles... I had one day last week where I was depressed and in a foul mood all day. After my run that evening, everything was totally fine again. From what I've read, this is all very typical. Here is one of the more amusing descriptions of "taper madness" that I've read:

http://www.runrichmond.com/id33.html

I feel totally confident in my ability to get my self to the 20-mile mark at an average pace between 8:40-8:59 per mile. It's that last 6.2 miles that are the great unknown. But then that's what running a Marathon is all about. Essentially these hundreds of miles of running and months of training are all just to experience that last 6.2 miles. The two big challenges are to have the endurance to keep running at my goal pace for beyond the 3-hour mark and to continue running once my muscles are depleted of fuel.

For my weight, I'll burn thru over 3600 calories during this event. Our muscles and liver have the capacity to store much less than that in the form of easy to use Glycogen. Most of the rest with have to be converted from fat stores. The point in a Marathon when your muscles are depleted of Glycogen is where runners hit the the infamous "wall". Continuing to run after this point is significantly harder as your body chemistry conspires with your mind and body to get you to stop. I'll consume 300-400 calories during the race in the form of Gu energy gel, which should help ease that transition somewhat. During my long training runs, I purposely consumed less calories than I will in the Marathon. My goal was to force my body to convert fat stores into fuel. It made for some tough running in the last few miles of my long training run, but hopefully it will pay off this weekend!