Karen writes: 2 weeks to Rotorua Marathon

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So training is about over for the Rotorua marathon, the next 2 weeks are for tapering, and as usual I feel like I should have done more.  I have pretty much followed the training plan from Grant (he rather cleverly doubled the gym component, so I have done half of that rather than almost none like last time), and I tell myself there is NOTHING to be done now, nothing I can do over the next 14 days will make me any fitter before the 28th of April, it's time for rest and recovery.

Karen and Kate in Red at Rotorua 2010
This week will be the longest at about 7 1/2 hours of running, that doesn't equate to a whole lot of distance because some (a lot) of that was pretty slow...so much for promising myself I would achieve a faster time!   I think back to the first marathon and seem to recall that I never went much over 5 running hours in the week, I guess the main difference now is in how I feel afterwards rather than how I perform in the event. After the marathon I expect to drive back to Auckland on Sunday morning, possibly with the help of something caffeinated, but I don't expect to experience any physical ill effects, unlike the first marathon where things hurt for days and I wasn't up to running again for weeks.  I also expect it to close the chapter on Ironman 2012, there is still the sense that all that training wasn't put to good use, and perhaps this effort will finish things.

But finishing this bit really is just the start of the next.   As previously described, part of endurance sport is of course having a legitimate excuse to shop and even a cheapskate like me has to spend something sometimes.  So with an eye to long months ahead of Ironman training, I now have 3 boxes of my favorite solid energy gels in a comforting stockpile in my office.  I found them at about half the usual price at Torpedo-7  and they do have to be used by December, but I'm sure I can do that.  However, I couldn't help but look at all these pretty coloured, pristine packets with all their promises of endless energy and souped-up performance and think that they represent a whole lot of work to come.   Sigh.

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