So begins another taper before the Columbus Marathon in a few weeks. In the past, and by past I mean in the last year, I've gone into these times tired, beat up, and sometimes recovering from injury. I'm feeling pretty good. I've played it a lot looser with my training this time around, ditching the constant journal entries and obsessing over getting in every run. I've concentrated on getting in the important runs: 5 weeks of hill training early on and just finished up a 6 week rotation of Yasso 800's. I got in all my long runs finishing up with a solid 20 miler last Sunday. All the other runs have been filled in as I could get them in. Some weeks I'd get in 4 runs other weeks only 3. It makes me a little nervous that I'm under trained and don't have the endurance I need to reach my goal had I put in a more regular schedule with more mileage.

On the positive side I feel healthy and haven't sustained any injuries that I've had in the past due to those high mile weeks. I guess the proof will come in a few weeks when I line up at the start line in Columbus to try to run a 3:20 marathon. I'll be testing the theory that it is better to be under trained and healthy rather than risk injury.

In the meantime I'll be running the Reggae Run 5k this Saturday. It's a tough run that begins and ends in Ault Park, and for those that don't know the park is on the side of a hill. You run down the hill out of the park, and back up to the finish. Should be fun! My goal is to finish top 50 at around 20 minutes.