Five Days to Go until the Saskatchewan Marathon

With five days until the Saskatchewan Marathon, I am ready to go... at least I think I'm ready to go. I've read that right now someone with my body weight should be consuming about 570 grams of carbs per day at this point before the race.  That amount goes up to nearly 800 grams of carbs tomorrow.
I've also eased up on the running (thanks to being sick) and am now fully recovered from the rigours of training.  When I ran 3.8k yesterday my legs felt fresh.
My plan for the next five days is pretty simple: do not get injured and do not get sick.

9 Days and Counting: Taper Time

Wow it's actually nice outside!!!! Cue the weekend blizzard... #Saskatoon #Saskatchewan

A photo posted by John (@misterspalding) on May 22, 2015 at 10:51am PDT

Now that a heatwave has blanketed Saskatchewan with early spring weather here on the cusp of June, we turn our attention to the foliage and random birdsong out the window.  Yes, marathon season is here!

So I missed a good week of running recently thanks to catching the flu.  I missed my 36k long run, but given that I've already done a 32k run and a handful of 24 and 26k runs, I should be fine even if I am convinced that my fitness level sucks right now.

Now I get to taper.  My next run is likely a 3.5k tomorrow, followed by 5-6k on Monday and a light run on Wednesday.

For today, though, I get to sip my 7-11 coffee and smell the lilacs.

Beef Research Station? ... cancelled 2015 Saskatoon Police Marathon and dirt roads

So I'm running along a dirt road here in good old #Saskatoon and what do I come across? A "beef research station". University of #Saskatchewan #beef #strange

A photo posted by John (@misterspalding) on Apr 29, 2015 at 2:43pm PDT

For the longest time I've wanted to explore a stretch of dirt road off Attridge Drive here in Saskatoon, but for whatever reason just haven't gotten around to it... until recently.  There is something nice and different about reducing the pounding of the long by sticking to a dirt road.
This kilometre-long path has the occasional stretch of hardened bicycle-dug rivets that seem to disappear just at the point where they become annoying.  And that's the thing about dirt roads, they're unpredictable with all the sharp rocks and stones that you come upon.
The path continues into Sutherland "Beach" (this is Saskatchewan, remember that) and down through a grove of trees onto the asphalt-paved Meewasin Trail.
*

Today emails went out to those of us who have signed up for the 2015 Saskatchewan Marathon.  I started to feel that familiar nervous feeling I get when I realize I'm going to be racing.  Although the term racing is a funny one... I mean really, what are we racing against?

*
The 2015 Saskatoon Police Half Marathon was cancelled due to inclement weather (i.e. heavy snowfall).  It really was the perfect storm as we had been experiencing Spring weather for quite a bit of time--to then have a half marathon wiped out all of a sudden because of something like that really sucks.  I did not register for this year's race (though I was definitely looking forward to being a spectator), and it's a good thing because not only was the race not postponed, but no refunds were issued either.  My position remains that races should be postponed, not cancelled.