There comes a point in every endurance athlete’s training cycle when the days melt into weeks and months, and it’s a brutal shock when you realize you’re dangerously close to D-Day and still feel underprepared.
Today marks three weeks until the Phuket Marathon. Next week, I set off for Singapore to do the Bintan Triathlon as an unconventional part of my marathon taper, and to have some fun with my tri friends.
rode out in Nuvali last Saturday as part of tri prep
My biggest concern really isn’t about hitting all the milestone mileage points in my training plan. It’s more about wardrobe.
Yesterday at the Nike Running Club Women’s Half Marathon, the race started at 4:30am and I was due to finish before 6:30am. The sun was up and beating down on our backs at 6am. Despite wearing the Nike Power Speed running tights (which I had lauded as being ultra-breathable) and the race’s official sleeveless tank top, I was still so warm by the time I crossed the finish line that I couldn’t stand thinking about running an additional 11 kilometers to hit the day’s target mileage of 32 kilometers.
with my race buddy Monika from iFlix Philippines
I’ve run into the same heat management issues on other runs when I’ve used tights, whether they’re capri-length or full-length. However, on training runs when I use normal running shorts, I have no problems tacking on kilometers and am pretty comfortable running even until 9am. My only (but biggest) qualm about using running shorts for a marathon is the chafing I tend to get from the shorts material riding up and rubbing on my inner thighs.
The last marathon I did, I ran in my tri uniform shorts (which have a 6″ inseam) and had virtually no chafing. Maybe I need to go shopping one more time and do another big run this week.
Tick-tock, tick-tock…
