Staying Focused

With this past weekends long run of 15 miles, I was surprised to hear of a lot of people, besides myself, having a hard time with it. You'd think by now we'd be used to it and 15 being 7 miles less than the week before should be a piece of cake, right? But here is the reality. It's 15 miles. 15 miles can not and should not be taken lightly. 15 miles is a long way to drive much less go out and run just for the "fun" of it. I don't think we were all truly struggling with the difficulty of it so much as the surprise and a little disappointment that it wasn't much easier. We are on a taper now aren't things supposed to be easy? Not really. I guess it is how you look at it. Tapering is a cut back in the miles and time on your feet to give your body the time it needs to fully repair itself. The intensity should still be there to keep you sharp. You need to keep your focus. I was achy and kind of lazy all last week for some reason and Saturdays run was a wake up call to me that there is much work to be done before marathon day less than 2 weeks away. Be smart with your training miles.