After majorly slacking on my training in Week Eight, I was determined to rebound in Week Nine and hit all my workouts for my last week of heavy training before taper. Motivation was running high last week and I had no problem with any of my workouts...even my two hour long run that I ended up doing on the treadmill.

Training So Far:
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight

Week Nine:

Monday: 4x1600

When I initially started doing mile repeats, I didn't love them, but they are slowly but surely starting to grow on me. I still prefer shorter intervals so I can run faster, but I know longer intervals have their place too.

Tuesday: 3 miles easy

Wednesday: 6 mile tempo run

By this point, I think everyone knows how I feel about tempo runs, but hey, at least I got it done.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Two hour long run

This was my last long run before taper and I wanted it to go well so I could wrap up heavy training on a high note. Unfortunately, Thursday night I didn't sleep very well and I woke up at 3 a.m. ready to go. At that point I figured I had two choices, get up and get the run done, or try to go back to sleep and risk being exhausted when my alarm went off and it was actually time to run. I opted to get up at 3 and do the run at the gym. Definitely not ideal, but I knew it was the only way to ensure the run happened. Running on a treadmill for two hours was pretty much the most boring thing in the world, but I jammed to my tunes and played mind games with myself to make the time go faster. As a bonus, the endorphins from the run carried me pretty much all the way through the work day. I had an insanely productive Friday, and then promptly fell asleep at 5 p.m.

Saturday: Rest and tailgate

Sunday: Football

We were supposed to have a double header, but the first team forfeited, and we needed to win our second game to make the playoffs. It was a pretty closely matched game for a while, and with two minutes left we were down a touchdown. Because we are awesome at football, we executed a beautiful offensive drive and scored to take the lead. The other team had the ball with 63 seconds, when their QB threw a pick to end the game. Victory! Playoffs start next week!

Total mileage: 26.5ish

I'm so excited that taper is finally here. I am getting so antsy for this race to happen. I feel well prepared and I'm just ready to race. I know there's nothing I can do now but keep my legs loose and enjoy lots of delicious carby foods. My schedule is insanely busy the next couple of weeks, so here's hoping the time flies by and race day gets here before we know it.