Preparing for Athens

Athens is coming up very quickly -- less than 2 weeks! -- and I do not have any grand plans of coming in under 2 hours. I know I can cover the distance, and coming in under 2:10 shouldn't be an issue. Aaron thinks I should still go for 2, but I don't know.

I tried last year and fell apart pretty badly, coming in around 2:03. I keep thinking I was in better shape last year, but a little examination of Garmin Connect doesn't show that definitively. I do know that last year, I had better long runs. I do know that this year, I haven't done a run over 6 or 8 miles at 10-minute pace or faster. My last decent long run was a 10-miler at 9:57 -- that was November, about a month after the marathon. I've been doing all of my long runs with training group so I have plenty of time on my feet, just nothing quick.

In any case, I don't know where I am. I have visions of doing 8 miles on Friday and trying to hit 9-minute miles for the middle 6 of that run. We'll see. We'll be running in St. Louis, so it's always trickier to plan workouts like that. Easy runs just fit in better.

But ultimately it doesn't matter. There's nothing I can do, training-wise, to make the race go better, so I should focus on what I can control: sleep, diet/hydration and foam-rolling.

I'll really hit the hydration next week, although generally I'm pretty good with that anyhow. I've tried going dry before, and I don't think it helped at all. I am limiting the amount I drink (although the wedding in St. Louis will be tricky) -- no need to drink more than one or two at a time. I will try to eat better, get all of my nutrients and vitamins.

But what I need to do is make sure I'm well-rested. I'm not tapering this week -- travel will do that well enough -- but I will try to sleep more and better. This week is just the lead-up, next week is the real deal in prep.