Taper Week, Here I Come!

It is officially taper week for the Holy Half Marathon this coming Sunday!  Jenn and I are pretty stoked about it and are praying for good weather.  Right now, weather.com is predicting awesome temperatures, but a little wetness...

I hope they are right about the temps and wrong about the rain.  That could suck, but their predictions change all the time, so hopefully they really are wrong this time!

Sunday was our last long run.  We did 12 miles!  That's the longest I've run since our last half marathon back in 2009.  Instead of mapping a new route that we didn't really know, we decided to do two laps of a 6.2 mile course that we knew pretty well.  The weather was supposed to be super rainy all day except for about three hours from 10am to 1pm.  So, out the door we went at 10 o'clock.  Since we were running two loops, we dropped our water bottles at the start so we could pick them up on the second round.  The first lap wasn't too bad.  In fact, I passed my buddy, Josh, twice as he was doing his last run of 10 miles.  That guy is a beast!  As I got back to the start of lap two, I grabbed my bottle of Powerade and kept running.  That's when it hit me like a hurricane in the gulf, like a tornado in the midwest, like a leaf blower on a lady bug...THE WIND!  Sometimes I just hate Michigan because of the wind.  The same route that I had run just a few miles before had become tornado alley with crazy winds blowing head on.  I struggled through the next three or four miles till I got back into town where the wind died down some.  The ONLY benefit to the wind was it carried me up the last hill.  I found myself almost leaning back on it as I ran with it pushing at my back.  12 miles was enough running for the day.  I had passed Jenn going the other way, so I hopped in the car and drove till I found her to run the last mile with her.  The run was rough on both of us.  The good news is that I feel pretty ready for this Sunday.  My goal for all these runs is to be faster than 9:05min/miles.  I finished the 12 miler with an 8:39min/mile average which I think is just fine.  I'm pretty sure I can hold that for another 1.1 miles!

I had been patiently waiting and tracking a certain package of goodies from Nashbar that finally arrived yesterday.  Jenn and I have burned up our rear tires on the trainer this winter, so we thought we deserved a new set.  Her chain was also ready to be replaced as well as some new handlebar tape for me.  So last night, I got busy cleaning and repairing.  Jenn's chain was a cinch with the masterlink that came with her chain.  She said all her shifting woes are gone and it runs super smooth.  I slapped on new tire on my front wheel.

Hopefully I won't have to change one in a race...I was SLOW!

Then it was on to a totally different look for the ole Felt.  It was time for a change!

New Handlebar Tape!

I had thought about staying with the yellow, and then I had thought about going with white (just because it looks so hot!!!), but I ended up going with black, and I think I'm glad.  Here are some "in-progress" shots.

Before - Old tape coming off

One Side Done 

Both Sides Done

Aerobars Done!

I was so stoked about how she looked that I threw on the bike shorts and did a power ride for 30 minutes.  It was so sweet.  I took some of the old handlebar tape and put it along the tops of the bars for extra padding, and it is really nice.  The temps are looking better, so I'll put that other tire on the rear wheel and start spending some quality time on the asphalt.

Tonight, Jenn and I did an easy 5k around town.  Both of our legs are feeling pretty good, and we are really looking forward to Sunday.

Good luck to all of you as you train for your races, and thanks for reading!