I leave for my vacation in just a couple hours, and I'm so nervous I'm forgetting something important for my marathon which I'm going directly to after vacation.  Eeek.

Right now, I'm really tired.  Yesterday we had our regional volleyball tournament and didn't get home until 1:00am.  I haven't been up that late in a long time!  We won the silver division which is good, but not great (winning the gold bracket would have been the best. . .but I'm not sure we had a team capable of that even if we played perfect).  I was going to sleep in this morning, but my friend (the bride) called at 8:00am.  The "crisis" was averted, but I was up for good after that.  I've finished my packing, and I'm ready to go with some extra time now.

So, the last few days have gone as so:

Thursday, I did a track workout.  I ran (800, 600, 600 ) x 3.  I had 90 sec rest between repeats and 4 min rest betrween sets.  My goal times were 3:30 for the half and 2:37 for the 600s.  My first one was a bit fast, but the others were pretty accurate. (3:20, 2:30, 2:34; 3:31, 2:39, 2:36; 3:31, 2:39, 2:39).  I ran on the old abandoned track near SCCC.  It's right by the bikepath and I just discovered it this spring.  There were two other people doing workouts there, but I know I'll never have to worry about sharing it with a college team or anything.  It's OLD.  The lines are so faded that you can only see them in a couple places.  The outer lanes are overgrown with grass & coated with dirt/mud.  But it works!

Friday, I did my last long run.  I met a friend from the club and did 11.75 miles on another section of the bikepath .  There was a downhill at the beginning & uphill at the end which somewhat simulates Boston.  It's vastly different really, but I tried to pretend   It was an easy run and felt great!

Saturday, was the volleyball tournament.  My knee is tight.  I think swollen.  When I bend it too far that is when it hurts a bit, but luckily you don't bend it when you run.  I'm icing it now, and I'll ice it some more as the week goes on, but I really don't think it's a problem.  It wasn't a problem in any of my runs this week.  And it wasn't really a problem in the volleyball tournament.  I felt it a few times, but nothing major.

Today, I'm taking as an off day.  I'll probaly only run 3-4 more times before the marathon.  My taper is really turning on this week.  I went from 52 miles to 35 to 34 to probably less than 20 this week.  It looks great on paper, but we'll see!

I may be back on here the Sunday before the race.  I'll be watching the women's trials, going to the expo, and hanging out at a friend's apartment.  My friend will be at clinicals so she'll be gone all day.  I'll be resting and lounging, the seemingly perfect plan for the day before the race