Vancouver weather...

Don't like it? Wait a day...

I swear it must be the easiest job in the world to be a weatherman in Los Angeles... Chance of sun? 100%... May see a cloud next week. And then, when you DO have a rain front, it comes like a mallet to the head and there is no doubt. Chance of rain? 100%

Here, the Vancouver weather has multiple personalities. It cannot seem to be a "great day" without there being wind, or a "miserable day" without that brief glimpse of sun-respite that makes you think "it could happen, it could happen" and cross your fingers.

So, it's beautiful today. High of 20 Celsius, and I'm like that puppy dog who wants desperately to get out into the sun soon (or, at least, my opera singing cat who won't leave me alone).

And for this weekend? Rain...

Not that I am complaining. I'd take the year-round outdoor activity of Vancouver to the minus temperatures anywhere else in Canada. I am just that way, I wake up every day with a sense of hope :) that this could be a better day.

The Vancouver Marathon is fast approaching, and it's down to 4 days. Tapering for the marathon is a never-ending battle of "enough? or too much?" thinking. It's almost like I'm trying NOT to try too hard... And the bottom line response from the experts is not very helpful sometimes. It's a mixture of "keep moving" and "don't move a muscle"...

The nutrition is no less ambiguous. To carb-load or not to carb-load... that is the question... Recently, I've read reports that it is important, actually, to add a little more lean protein throughout the week to aid in recovery, and then rebalance in favour of the carbs by Friday Friday and Saturday, since my activity level will be less and the need for energy is higher. But the protein helps accelerate recovery, so that makes sense.

Since I started marathon running, I've gone through the gambit of taper and nutrition ideas leading up to race day. My 12th marathon in November, 2005, I actually decided to have a couple of pints of beer and two glasses of wine the night before. My thinking (?) there was, "I am not PB'ing this race, and I just want to enjoy myself". And, lo-and-behold, I did enjoy myself. I wasn't trained well enough to get a personal best anyway. But I had one of the most enjoyable marathons of my life... Now, I didn't really decide to attempt THAT marathon until the week before.

There is pressure on this race. I have people I know will be out on the course, watching, knowing full well what I am CAPABLE of running. I know too. And I also know that this is not the time to prove it. My race strategy is to start out and attempt a 1:35 first half. It's not something easy, but I have done better before. After that, it's anybody's guess...

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail today... "No pressure... It's only pain"

Most encouraging...

No marathon can ever be taken lightly. It is a game and, even if you won't be going for your best "TIME" ever, it is certainly within your province to attempt your best "RACE". And, by that, I mean preparing properly, and sticking to your gameplan. In fact, racing in that manner is almost better than aiming for the PB every time. Learning strategy and what your limits are at different points, busting through the wall in the proper way (and not walking), and finishing strong and stretching after (recovering properly) are all parts of it. This is NOT my Stanley Cup race, but I still need the two points in the regular season. Those two points can come from feeling like I had a good race on Sunday, that I executed my plan properly, and so on...

So, that's where I'm at and, unlike the weather, that's the plan I'm going to stick to. Unless, of course, it snows... and there's a 50% chance of that.

Good luck to everybody else running this weekend.

This week's training log:

Monday: Bike: 2x2.5k repeats + 1x5k repeat
Other: 30 minutes of weight training
Tuesday: Run: 6.2km at marathon pace (moved swim to Wednesday morning)