Melborune Marathon - taper time

Still slightly sick with sinus issues but the anti-biotics seem to be clearing it slowly. The plan for Melbourne is 74-75mins through halfway depending on how comfortable this feels. Ideally sub 2:30 is still the goal so it will need to be an even split which I have basically never done before let alone a negative split. (ironic how a faster 2nd half is called negative with my usual outcome called positive - nothing positive about it).

This week will be 70km in total so along way down from those 160km weeks. Also ironic how I was healthy the entire 3 weeks then as soon as I dropped, bang sickness again. I think Neil Pearson and Brendan Davies may be onto something with just racing a marathon every other week. Saves the overthinking, and the mentally taxing build up. Not ideal for the body though.

This week including tomorrow looks like this: Oct 3rd - 9th

Mon: 10km at 4:05's feeling pretty good
Tue: 12km HuRTs session with 6 x 3min efforts mostly around the 3:10 pace mark. Very busy around the botanic gardens. JFen, Darren Moyle, and Brendan keeping me honest.
Wed: 10km at 4:25's
Thur: 8km with 2min efforts
Fri: 5km along the promenade at Surfer's Paradise (quick work trip)
Sat: Main Beach Park run. Had a big buffet dinner that didn't end till after 10pm last night so didn't sleep much at all and with the sun up at practically 3am up here, woke early and with a full stomach. Went through all the motions and jogged up to the start, stretched out my tight hammies and hips and got into it. Fast to start with a young rabbit on the footpath - 3:08, then the concrete turned to trail with dirt, gravel and soft sand plus a few little climbs, oh and no idea where I was going. Guessed correctly but faded to a 3:26 for the 2nd km. The 3rd km was rougher 3:30 before I managed to reel it back in a bit as the trail hardened up 3:20, and finally a fast last footpath km in 3:10 for 16:35. Total 15km which will act as my long ish run this weekend.
Sun: 10km with the CP crew to make 70km for the week.

Next week 30-40km easy and we'll see how Sunday goes.

Greta raced a splash n dash type biathlon during the week with Spot Anderson's squad. Wow talk about tough - 500m ocean swim, 800m (approx.) soft sand run, 500m swim, 800m run then a 3rd 500m swim.