Retirement Day

I am now officially into the tapering period of my training. Here's what my plan has to say about this week:

Welcome to tapering! We'll slowly reduce hours over the next 3 weeks, while keeping the sword sharp for race day.
This is a good week to begin making your specific race day plans. The whole day goes on 1 piece of paper. Schedule, pacing, equipment, race food, pre-race food, and other logistics are all part of your execution plan.

Keeping the sword sharp, I love it! My training plan for the day was:

R: 60minutes, 45minutes at RPE 3, 15minutes at RPE 7

I ran to school with Mindy while she rode her bike, then ran around to finish out my time. The annoying thing about this run was that I had to stop and go to the bathroom twice. Luckily I ran a course where I knew where some public restrooms were, but I always hate having to stop. Plus I had to stop when I dropped Mindy off to lock up her bike, and stop to walk a couple times because of the aforementioned need to pee. Because of this, I probably didn't run for quite an hour, but after the second bathroom break I felt good and was able to run strong. After 45 minutes, I ran as hard as I could home. I had to pass my house to get to an hour, then I jogged back for 2 minutes. 

It was a good workout, and it was the last run those shoes will ever do. It is a sad day for my Nikes.  

Now that they are worn out, Pete discovered that these shoes have a little place in the sole to put your Nike+ sensor. 

I'm kind of disappointed that I never used this feature because Pete has one of these somewhere, and I could have been tracking distance and pace and all that fun stuff with his ipod. But, on the other hand, I really like my shuffle, and who cares? It's not like it's that hard to put the sensor on your laces so, really, I could have been doing it anyway.

After I dropped Ethan off at school, Elle and I went down to Wasatch Running Center to buy some new shoes. The saleslady there told me that, this close to the race, she would recommend getting the same shoes or the shoes I wore before these. Well, I can't say I was in love with the Nikes and I was kind of wanting something different so I tried on the new Pearl Izumi Float since that's what I wore before the Nikes. I also tried on the Pear Izumi Pace and I liked this one best.


She said they were more comparable to the Nikes I had, so it's a good compromise. I didn't even bother to try anything else on because I was trying to make it a quick trip so Elle could still have a nap. I really like these ones and think they'll be great!

I also picked up some more recoverite, since I was fresh out, and some packs of my favorite Apple Cinnamon Hammer Gel so it will be easy to just take them with me on the run and not worry about what gross flavors they have at the aid stations.

Elle did indeed fall asleep on the way home, and is still sleeping peacefully in her bed. What a sweet child. I'm happy to have my new shoes too. Let's go run!