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Race week!
By the time most of you are reading this post, I will probaby be running the Vienna marathon or maybe even finished!
I’ve been recapping training for Vienna for quite some time, here’s the full history!
19 weeks until Vienna + Christmas in London
18 weeks until Vienna + snow in London!
16 weeks until Vienna (after a week in Finland for Christmas!)
15 weeks until Vienna
14 weeks until Vienna
13 weeks until Vienna
A week in Val d’Isere (France) + things I like & dislike about London
11 weeks until Vienna
10 weeks until Vienna
9 weeks until Vienna
8 weeks until Vienna (+ a weekend in Bath!)
7 weeks until Vienna + my first 20 miler of the cycle
6 weeks until Vienna with my first live Peloton tread class
5 weeks until Vienna+ my 2nd 20 miler of the cycle
4 weeks until Vienna + my family arrives for a visit!
3 weeks until Vienna+ visiting Paris with my family & a 22 miler!
2 weeks until Vienna + Easter weekend in the Lake District
1 week until Vienna
Race week!
…coming soon: A race recap of the Vienna marathon 🙂
Here’s how the final week of taper went for me:
Monday: Last mini-workout, which was warm-up, 3×1 mile at marathon effort, and cooldown for 7 miles. I set a wide range for the marathon effort and didn’t look at my watch; my lifetime marathon PR is 3:35 (2016), but that was pre-broken leg. My post-broken-leg PR is 3:37 (2019). I am quite sure that I’m not in that shape right now; I think I’m around 3:50 shape, so that’s my general goal for Vienna, but it does look like it will be a hot one tomorrow so I really just want to run a smart race and enjoy seeing Vienna. I’ll have Dublin in the fall (a nice cool marathon) to potentially try for something else. With this being my 41st marathon, I’m not really chasing any particular time goals anymore, but running for the love of running!
Anyways back to the recap: I was able to sort of half-watch the Boston Marathon footage while at the office (it was difficult though- I had to use a VPN on my phone to “pretend” I was in the U.S. to access the footage and it would only work on my phone.) It was so exciting to see Emma Bates run such an amazing race! Did you know she’s from Minnesota? She credits growing up in Minnesota for her grittiness (Read THIS article!) AND this article says she still enjoys wine, even the night before tough workouts. My kinda gal. 🙂
I had a few Minnesota friends racing and they all had good days. Happy to see it!
Tuesday: Rest day from running; dog walks and core and barre, but that’s it.
Wednesday: 5 mile run with Ruth before work. I tested out the Hoka Rocket 2x shoes, which is Hoka’s “super-shoe.” Most super shoes don’t work for me (especially Nike) as I have very wide feet, but these Hokas feel pretty good so far, so I’m going to go for it and wear them for Vienna.
Thursday: 4 mile trail run with Ruth in the Heath followed by a stop at Gail’s at South End Green for coffee and a scone. It was a lovely little morning before working from home.
While we were in the Heath, we met a 2-year old vizsla named Gracie, so I stopped to let Ruth off-lead for some zoomies with her new friend. She was going SOO fast and of course cut herself on a tree branch on her bum. It’s always something with this pup! I called the vet and they recommended “Hibiscrub” twice daily on the wound. It’s been interesting getting to know the meds here in the U.K. Of course, every pharmacy I called didn’t have any Hibiscrub in stock as apparently its difficult to get still due to Covid, so I called the vet again and they were willing to dispense a little bit of it for me. She’s healing up just fine though, and we didn’t really need the Hibiscrub, but now I have some for the next time she cuts herself on accident!
Friday: Another short shakeout run with Ruth in the Heath, just 3.3 miles. Then a full day of work before heading to Heathrow for our flight to Vienna in the evening.
Saturday: Shake-out run in Vienna! 4.25 miles with some strides, mostly in Stadtpark, which was a lovely park near our hotel.
After the run and breakfast, we took the U-bahn (subway) to the expo. Vienna’s subway is very clean and very easy to navigate! It’s all sort of on the honor system where you can load money onto a ticket on your phone, and with the CityMapper app (the best app) it’s very easy to figure out.
The line to get into the expo was VERY long and it didn’t really make sense, as once we were inside, it was just a free-for-all walk to get to the far other side to pick up our bibs. I was also surprised that there was no Vienna gear at all- nada! The only Vienna marathon gear available were finisher’s shirts that you had to pre-order (which we didn’t do). People were buying finisher’s shirts for their kids and by the time we decided maybe we should get them, they were sold out of all sizes except XL and up. Strange!
By the way, the temperatures on Saturday were about 70 F or 21 C with bright strong sun. Felt so warm!
We spent the afternoon exploring the Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna’s “Versailles.” 🙂 We toured the state apartments, but probably could have skipped that part and just toured the free gardens as they were very expansive and beautiful.
We spent a fair amount of time walking around the gardens; they were worth a visit, though we probably did a wee bit too much walking!
Around 5 pm, we were back at our hotel to rest up a bit before our standard pre-marathon dinner of a margarita pizza at Pizzeria La Spiga (very good!) And early to bed before the race tomorrow.
Sunday: The Vienna marathon. More to come!
I’m linking up with Running on the Fly and Confessions of a Mother Runner; check out their blogs to connect with other fitness bloggers for workout ideas and inspiration!
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