All I want for Christmas is another 22 miler

I don't remember Mariah Carey's rendition of the song containing that line, but it should have been there.

Disney Marathon training is starting to wind down for the season as I am now well into the "3 weeks until race day" window. I know I've mentioned it before, but I don't really subscribe to a 3 week taper as some runners do. Instead, I'll end up running another 22 miler on this coming Friday/Saturday morning and that will (or at least, should) cap the long runs before I toe the line at Disney on Jan 9. I say "should" because I'm not one to hesitate throwing in another long one if I feel that I need it.

As training goes, everything continues to rock on without issue. My mileage continues to hover between 45-55 per week, and I still (praise God) remain injury-free. As I look back at my training schedule and logs, this buildup has been the most grueling, yet rewarding training cycle I've completed since I started the whole "marathon-thing". It's been loaded with tough workouts, which I love, tougher workouts, which I don't love quite as much, and long distance tempo/fast-finish workouts, which I now hate so much, I think I love them in a way...

Strange.

I should finish up this week with about 50 miles again, and then head into next week with the goal of notching down mileage and long runs to about 38 miles total for the week. The following week will see my decrease take me down to about 34 miles. Two days later, Disney marathon.

Yeah baby.

To all of my fellow runners that will be heading down to Orlando, FL around Jan 8-9, stay strong in these final two weeks of training. Don't do anything stupid (I need to take this advice myself, now that I think about it:)) and trust the training that has gotten you this far. With three weeks until race day, there is very little additional physiological benefit that can be realized by increased training now, but injury can definitely be a real risk. Again, don't try to make up for lost workouts that you missed back in October - it's not worth the risk to your body. Be smart, train smart, recover, and on Jan 8 or 9, RACE.