Welcome to race week.

One of my 19 for 2019 is to PR in the marathon, to break my best pace in the marathon.  

That being said, one of the ways I'm working towards that goal is another of my 19 for 2019: Hire a coach.  In January, I began working with a coach.  My longer term running goals is to be a healthy & fit runner for the rest of my life.  That means training well, eating well (still a work in progress) and recovering/resting well.  

It's been a fantastic experience working with a coach.  I love that I open up my training calendar and have a week's worth of workouts all prepped for me.  All I have to do is run.  Well, really, I have to run and eat, stretch, foam roll, and hydrate, but the planning is out of my hands.  

There have been challenging speed workouts, fun recovery runs and days when the distance felt perfect.  
The plan for the marathon is to run the Rehoboth Marathon in December.  In the meantime, my coach recommended signing up for a spring half marathon.  So this Saturday I'll run the Garden Spot 1/2 Marathon.  I'm looking forward to it and am also a bit nervous about it.  

I've run half marathons before, but this will be the first one that I will have run coached.  

The toughest part for me during race week is taking it easy.  I won't put in much distance as I run this week yet I still need to rest and hydrate well.  With lots of sickness going around lately, I'll also enjoy daily doses of vitamin C.  I'm also looking forward to some tasty home cooked meals high in protein and veggies with healthy whole grains.  I'll probably take some time to watch my favorite pre-race movie, Run, Fat Boy, Run. 

It'll be a good week.  
It'll end with a race.  
I'll reflect on the race next week.  

In the meantime, I'll embrace the taper and get ready for race day in the middle of the 4th week in Lent.  
Bring it. 
Until the next post...