Next week will be my race week, with the coast marathon on the 7th of February. Which means the last few days before the race I am focussing on staying fresh and rest + recovery. While my hamstring forced me to make some adjustments in my taper plan, I am not worried for next week as I feel everything is still under control!
This weeks taper plan:
What happened this week;
Tuesday 5 km recovery run
I started the planned run on Tuesday, but noticed that it would be risky to do the 2x 8 min on marathon pace. My hamstring was tensed so I needed to make an adjustment. The strides on Monday proved to be to taxing while my hamstring was still recovering
Wednesday: 12.5 km recovery
I considered swapping the Tuesday training to Wednesday but opted against it in terms of the MP being too taxing atm. I settled for 12.5km at zone 1, low zone 2. Which felt fine!
Thursday - complete rest
Todays run - 5.5 km recovery with progression in first km.
I wanted to test my hamstring today, without forcing it too much. Strong strides would feel too risky - whereas low effort strides would not really give the result I was looking for. I decided to go for a recovery run - but progressively speed up during the first kilometer - that way I could test it, but also dail back directly if it would become uncomfortable. It stayed fresh the whole progression (while noticeable 3/10) after the kilometer it got back quickly to 1/10. Successfull test!
