I’m still riding a high from Sunday’s half marathon PR! After a much needed rest day, I laced up my shoes late this evening for a tempo run. My legs didn’t enjoy it but it was the perfect opportunity to hop back on the taper training wagon before tomorrow’s 15 hours of travel. Our bags our packed and we’re heading to Atlanta tomorrow. While I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with friends and family that we don’t see nearly enough, traveling to the US this close to the marathon has me a bit nervous. I’ve packed my running gear, massage balls, compression socks and lots of healthy snacks for the flight. While it would be easy to spend our time in Athens enjoying way too much tailgate food and alcohol, I’m going to have fun this weekend but keep things in balance. My eye is on Berlin, not a hangover on Sunday. I hear Ryan Gosling is going to be waiting me at the finish line. Oh wait, never mind, he has a new baby to cuddle instead.

This week’s plan includes getting in the prescribed runs, sleeping a lot, drinking tons of water, and limiting my alcohol intake.

Now, let’s get back to last week’s training!

Monday -  A quick 20 minute strength workout including wall squats, walking lunches, planks, jumping jacks, and more.

Tuesday –   I woke up early to do 8 x 800 repeats in through Acton Green Common while staying in Chiswick. My pace stayed between 7:53-8:01 for each of the repeats!

Wednesday – This day should be known as the day Charlie and I took ALL the spin classes. We started our day with 45 minute boot camp spin class at Edge Cycle and ended the day with a 45 minute class at Cycle Beat. I am a competitive person and therefore pushed myself too hard during the class and quickly realized that I prefer spin classes that don’t have public torq/beat/exertion boards for that exact reason.

Thursday –  After landing back in Geneva, I kicked off the bank holiday with 7 tempo miles along the Lake. I realized during this run that midweek runs between 6-9 miles stress me out far more than speed workouts or long runs. Am I the only one that feels this way?

Friday –  I discovered a new Runners World yoga streaming video which combines foam rolling with yoga. I think I’m going to do this again this week as it was absolute bliss!

Saturday – My rest day included lots of baking, wandering through the farmer’s market, 10 hours of sleep and lots of foam rolling.

Sunday – The day I finally ran a sub-2 hour half marathon, according to my Garmin, or set a new PR according to the official race results. Regardless, there was bubbly and cheese included in the celebrating Sunday night!

I’m personally exhausted just reading last week’s recap. While it was taper in distance, the effort was beyond taper. Don’t you worry. These two weeks are going to be ALL about respecting the taper.