2 days to the Berlin Marathon: Last week's training

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Berlin, counting down the hours until race-time. The race starts at 9:15 (CEST) on the 24th, so the middle of the night for those trying to follow in the United States. I left for Prague on Sunday and arrived Monday evening, so I will have had almost a week to recover from travel. The jetlag is hitting me much harder this time than it did earlier in the summer, but fortunately my sleeping is almost back to normal with two nights to spare. I arrived in Berlin yesterday, and the brief 30 minute flight was as easy as it sounds.

This past week has been mostly focused on risk aversion: Flying to Europe early, sleeping as much as possible, being deliberate with food choices as to avoid food poisoning or any other digestive issues, thoroughly washing hands, pre-preparing my fluids for race-day, etc. I even switched taxis at the airport when realizing immediately that the driver was very sick. There is no reason to lose the last 11 weeks of marathon prep over something that is in your control. Now it's all on me come Sunday.

We will find out the final details regarding pace groups tomorrow, but it sounds like I will be in a 65:30 group at this point. I think this still puts me in a good position to set a PB as my current personal best is from London where we came through in 65:15 and faced some headwinds the second half. If I had run these same workouts before my stress fracture cycle, I would probably look to be more aggressive, but because I have not had many opportunities to race the last two years, I need to be patient and do my best to take a step forward toward the Olympic Trials for 2020. Even though my volume hasn't been quite as high as in the past, the quality has been steady across the board, and I think I have a chance to give sub-2:10:57 an honest shot.

As I mentioned previously, the front end of the race is going to be incredibly exciting, with Kipchoge, Kipsang, and Bekele all in contention for a new world record. Be sure to tune in at NBCSN.

Thanks again for reading. The final two weeks of training are posted below. Follow me here on Twitter for more updates.

Weeks to go: 2	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	14	off	40 minutes	14
Tuesday	12.5	5 + drills and strides		18
Wednesday	4 x 2 miles @ 4:40-4:45, rest = 2 min	off		15
Thursday	12.5	off		12.5
Friday	11.5	4.5	40 minutes	16
Saturday	45 minutes + 8 x 200 meter hills	off		9.5
Sunday	15 miles easy	off		15
Total:				100
Weeks to go: 1	AM	PM	Strength	Mileage
Monday	off - travel to Czech	off- travel to Czech		0
Tuesday	11.5	6	30 minutes	17.5
Wednesday	5 x 1km @ 2:55, rest = 1 min	4.5		15
Thursday	9.5	off		9.5
Friday	7 + drills and strides	off		7.5
Saturday	4-5 miles	off		4.5
Sunday	Berlin Marathon	off		15