It's time to eat, drink and hope for the merry

In 10 days it will all be over. The experiment would have come to an end and I will, no doubt, have mixed emotions. Some things have gone well while other things haven't but these will be judged by the results. But judgment is for next week.

For now it's about the final preparation. I have my final speed workout today which involves doing a few laps at faster than marathon pace. Then it's just another couple of easy runs throughout the week to stay relaxed. The two big changes this week will be my sleep schedule and my eating plan.

The marathon starts at 6 am. I need to leave home about 45 mins before that. Before I leave home I need to hydrate and clear out the bowels (the last thing I want in the middle of a marathon is to need a toilet for a number 2!) So that means I'm up about 4:30 am. To avoid being groggy and tired I will be adjusting my sleeping routine this week so that my body clock is used to getting up at 4:30 am. That should leave me feeling fresh and ready on race day. The discipline involved in succeeding in this is not getting up at 4:30 am but getting to bed early enough so that I've had enough sleep to get up at 4:30 am.

And then there's the eating plan. I need to eat lots of carbs and drink lots of water. I want my body to store lots of energy so that my legs have lots to draw on during the run so I'll be eating lots of carbs. Hydrating my body is also crucial, especially for me. I sweat a lot - and I mean a lot. I did a hydration test in Australia and I lose 1.1 litres per hour. In India I can lose that much in half an hour so I need my body to well hydrated long before the race.

Hopefully, I will finish the next few days feeling fantastic. As I continue to taper the aches and pains should completely disappear, I should feel energised and mentally excited. The hip pain has subsided nicely (although there is still some lower back pain on that side of the body) and the legs are feeling good. For now, it's time to eat, drink and sleep, for in 10 days I run.

10 days to go. 

The most difficult exercise in the final two weeks

In training for an event, any event, the closer I get to the starting line the more nervous I becomes. All the failures of training begin to haunt my mind. Doubts of achieving my goals become bigger and scarier. The desire to catch up on training grows. In the final two weeks of marathon preparation there is one exercise that is critical to me doing well. Rest.

With two weeks to go any endurance that has been gained is there. Any increases in speed have been gained. If I haven't developed the endurance and speed I wanted then it's too late. Now is the time to make the physical effort to back off from training and rest.

In the last 2 weeks if I try to compensate for missed training runs by running too fast or too long hard then there is the genuine risk that I will exhaust my body and not recover in time for the marathon. If my body is exhausted there is the risk I will catch some bug and get sick. I've run a marathon sick before and it's not pretty.

This phase of marathon preparation is called the taper. The amount of running one does significantly drops. Muscles recover. The immune system gets stronger. I still need to do some running, especially some short runs at marathon pace but no more than half of the weekly distances that I have been doing. I've been teaching my body to run for a while now so it is difficult to now tell it rest. But rest I must.

We live in a world that is already sleep deprived. We stay up late. The alarm gets us up early. Our bodies are so tired we think this is normal. Rest feels awkward and foreign. A luxury our lifestyle doesn't permit. That's what makes the exercise, the physical effort, of getting to bed early, of holding back from running, of sleeping well, so hard. That's what makes this so difficult an exercise but it's also the most important.

In your preparation for an event, physical or otherwise, do you taper? Do you allow yourself time to recover so that you are at 100% health before the event or do you train and keep trying right up to the starting line?

2 weeks to go.