Step back, peak week, and early taper

Posted by Rachel

It has been a while since I updated on my training, and now we're only 2 weeks away from LA! Here's a general recap:

Three weeks ago (aka the week after crime week)

The week after crime week was as step back week, which was much needed. It ended with an awesome girls weekend in Carmel. The main event was Saturday all-day wine drinking, but I actually survived a 12.7 mile run on rolling hills on Sunday. Barely.

Two weeks ago (aka peak week)

Two weeks ago was peak week where I ran my highest mileage ever - 55.2. I hit most of my key workouts (track, tempo, long run) and felt really strong. I can't think of much to say about this other than I hope I feel during the race like I did during my 22 miler this week!

This past week (aka early "taper")

I personally think a 3-week taper is too long for me, especially given the proximity to my last step back week, so I still did a fairly high weekly mileage (for me) of 45. The only thing I cut was my long run - I planned to do 18 but ended it at 16.2 instead. I ran up into the hills which was really challenging me, and I figured it's best to not overdo it 2 weeks out. Today was an easy 6 miler but my quads were a little sore from the (down)hills. I know the hills I did yesterday are much bigger than anything I'll face on the course in LA anyway though. Today during my easy run I brought my camera and decided to have some fun.

So lucky to have so much water to run near!

Now it's actual taper time - I know from past tapers that I do best when I dial down the intensity a little (but not too much) but don't take too many days off either. On a non-training related note, Travers and I made plans to cheer for the marathon Olympic trials the day before the race, so that should be really fun to watch our nation's best distance runners up close!  http://www.latrials2016.com/
LA, here we come!