Greetings from taper town! This was a bit of a ho-hum week of training, but I’m going with the adage that a mediocre taper can lead to a great race. Things overall just feel a bit heavy and tired, but I think cutting back even more next week will give me the pep and zing I need on race day.

Workouts: Both my HMGP miles and my MGP miles this week felt harder than usual. I did them without music and hit my paces, but it took effort to get there. I ran the MGP workout way too fast and my stomach was not cooperative, so my goal for this week is to run my marathon pace miles at true marathon pace and to let them feel easy breezy.

Skiing: Since spring doesn’t seem to be arriving any time soon in Boston, we made our way up to Vermont for a day of xc skiing on Saturday. It was such a pleasure! The conditions were near-perfect (I kept having to remind myself it was really April 7th), and it felt good to take a breath and be out in the woods.

Long run: Since Jeremy is ramping up for the Old Port Half Marathon in June, he agreed to join me for my for 10 miler. It was so nice being able to share my last long run with him! He is totally embracing this crazy running thing… my bad 😉 It was his longest run since the fall and he rocked it!

Be Race Ready workshop: On Sunday, I did a restorative yoga/mental race prep workshop with one of my favorite marathoners/yoga teachers, the lovely Cara Gilman. It was a great opportunity to breathe, relax, and practice some meditative strategies for race week and race day.

That’s all for now, folks! I’ll be back later in the week with a gratitude-filled post about the people who have influenced me most in my running. If you need me, I’ll be resting up and chowing down on my favorite marathon lasagna from Run Fast Eat Slow. One week to go!

Week 18: 34.3 miles

• Monday: 2×2 at HMGP for 6 total
• Tuesday: 4 recovery
• Wednesday: 10 at MGP
• Thursday: Rest day
• Friday: 4 easy
• Saturday: XC skiing!
• Sunday: AM: 10 easy with J, PM: yoga and meditation workshop

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap (hosted by Hoho Runs and Taking the Long Way Home).