Its been over a week since my last update, but there hasn’t been a lot to write about. Tapering just seems to take forever … but I understand its value. I found that over the last week, my intensity was a little too high, even on my recovery runs. My pace was not a recovery pace, but more like my marathon pace, which tells me that my body is ready to go for the race on Sunday.

The weather is supposed to be pretty nice for the weekend in Rochester, NY. It is a little cooler up north, which is part of the reason I chose this race as the first this fall. Morning temperatures are currently being forecast at around 60*, with an afternoon high of around 74*, which to me isn’t too bad. Those are actually the average temperatures for mid-October racing here in southeast Pennsylvania, so it should be nice.

I think the biggest challenge during this last week of tapering is to not eat too much. I am so used to eating and eating and eating because of the heavy miles and hard workouts I was putting in, so to cut back will be a challenge. The other challenge is to stick to the training, i’ve been successful with the training over the entire summer by following it exactly, so I have to hold on for a few more days… I think the psychological part now is that i’m questioning doing the full 26.2 when its been so long since i’ve run a longer distance (well, its ok, its been 9 days, maybe not that long).

I’ve worked to setup my post-first-marathon training, which features a short recovery, a tough week and then a short taper before the ING Hartford Marathon in October. I don’t know if I wrote about it or not, but I was asked to be a pace team lead for 4:05 finishers, so I accepted. I get to have a write-up done on me in their program, and get to hang out meeting runners at the pace team booth at the expo the day before, it’ll be excited. So if you’re NOT running ING Hartford marathon this year, you should because you can meet me … (or maybe thats a reason to stay away from it)..

That leads me to the Outer Banks marathon in November, which will be the last marathon I run for a bit. The plan is pretty much set for next year and I intend to hang up the marathon shoes for the spring and the fall of 2011 and instead pull out the swimsuit, my bike and a shorter distance running shoes, yep, I’m talking the triathlon. It is time for a change I think, and after we do our first triathlon in late May, we’ll see if it sticks. I know when I planned my first marathon in 2006, I scheduled one, then knew when I was done that I wanted more … hopefully the same feeling will come with the triathlon..

This transition of sorts also had me make some decisions about this current blog .. and since its really a history of my marathon running, I intend to keep it up and going, but start writing about the transition from being a marathoner to being a triathlete at my new site www.jokach.com. There are a couple reasons for the future change … first is that the b2evolution blog software is just substandard to WordPress, second, this blog has always been about running, and as I evolve from being just a runner, it seems appropriate to track it elsewhere. I guess we’ll see how it goes … it doesn’t mean i’ll never post here, but probably not as often.