I was surprised at the temperature this morning when I was driving over to the Lehigh Canal Park in Allentown for my 21 miler. I actually had the heat on for a moment as the temperature read 50 degrees … wow, and its August! I decided to make my last long run before the Rochester marathon a trail run, with some road running mixed in to better simulate what the marathon will be like.

The run was great, I kept my goal pace the entire time and finished strong and would have been able to keep going if I needed to.. I like this course because there is a water fountain halfway up in Sand Island park, so I hit on the way up and hit it on the way down, how can you beat that? It kind of supplements my fuel belt water because what I carry is never enough … plus there were a lot of nice people out today as well, that always keeps my spirits up.

Now its on to the taper or mesocycle 4 of my training.. but a different approach to tapering than i’ve done before. I think part of the reason why i’ve struggled in my other marathons so far this year is that I don’t actually taper until the last week … and generally by that time of the training, i’m overtrained, tired and sore, which is not how it should be one week before the race. This time its not that way at all because I stuck to the training and don’t consider myself overtrained like in other years… so my next two weeks are a series of 8 or 9 milers mixed between 5 mile recovery runs and some minor speed work. And then one 13 miler left next weekend before I really cut the miles back… I expect to add some bike time in there also if I can, but not too much..

So tomorrow is my second and last tune up 5K race at the Lehigh Valley Zoo … I’m not going out with the intention to really kick it, because I don’t want to injure myself, but the goal is to get the “mojo” back for running, it seems to be slipping for some reason (and now is not the time, I still have more marathons to go).

I’ve come to the decision that next year will be a triathlon year and not a marathon year, which means I have a lot of planning, shopping and training to do. The OBX marathon is in mid-November and after a short break for Thanksgiving, off to the gym to weight train, to learn to swim better and to do some spinning.. I can still get outside to run the shorter distances and ride the bike in the gym if I have to, I just have to find one i’m comfortable with, thats the challenge. I’m looking for any suggestions on training or eating better for a triathlon, or maybe a good book or something to guide me. Then the question becomes, which one do I do, and what distance do I go for. I look at the sprint triathlon distances, and I can do the bike and the run distance pretty easily, so I might have to set my goal a little higher (which sounds in line with the way I am).

So in making this decision for the coming year, it somehow feels like i’m back in my senior year of high school or college, when you know the end is coming to something that you’re comfortable with (the marathon) and you’re unsure what the future has to hold (the triathlon).. i’ll be okay i’m sure, i’m not afraid but actually excited about the new challenge…