How are you all, good, me too, thanks for asking....
Well it is that time now when I am on School holidays for the Spring break (not called Easter break at our school with all the different International Religions!) so putting the feet up a bit, getting those little jobs that need doing done and scaling back the training as I begin my taper time for the marathon.
I am keeping myself busy, but also enjoying a bit of time to tune out and recharge the batteries. The taper will begin after a final 1k's session today and from here I will back off the distance, dropping to run one per day.
Coupled with this, I am planning on trying the big Carbo drop - super load diet from Wednesday on.
What you do here is go 3 days with no or as little Carbs as possible (so basically everything I like including pasta, breads, cereals, sugary fruits and sweets) which is supposed to wipe out all your Carb stores in the body. During this time, apparently you are meant to feel pretty tired and flat, as you lose alot of energy giving fuels and the replacement is Protein based foods.
By the weekend I will be back up to my normal Carb fuelled eating, and the intentioon is to ramp it up even more,. so that your muscles really absorb the fuel and it is stored in readiness for the marathon race day...
The last trick here, is to make sure just before you go back to eating big meals of Carbo rich foods, you do one last emptier run... so I will be doing a 25km run and am expected to feel pretty crap for this, running on very low fuel levels!
Its all sounds pretty scientific, but makes sense at the same time... Luckiliy I am on holidays, so can rest as much as needed and hibernate a bit for these few days. There would be no way I would be able to do this is I was still at school tecahing all day!
Since last time, I also have done my final hit out, the 10km Swiss Road Championships, held last Saturday, which I was able to take out... so technically my first National title over here, even if it is not recognized as I am not a Swiss.
It was a nice final test for me though on the roads and the race panned out just as I would have liked, where I was pushing off the front and surging as often as needed until I was free and able to run the second half controlled to the line.
Spring has sprung over here and other than a bit of Hayfever with all the pollen,etc in the air, it is an awesome time of the year.
We now have Daylight Saving, after switching the clocks a couple of weekends ago, which gives us more light at the end of the day. We also have heaps of blooming trees, coming back to life after the Winter.
I never used to take much notice of the weather in Australia, as it was generally just different levels of warm... Hot in Summer, a bit rainy and less hot in the Winter months and inbewteen, different levels of hot!
Over in Switzerland, you really experience the 4 seasons and right now, Spring is winning as my favourite.
So far we have had plenty of sunny days, not too hot, so good for marathon training, with fresh mornings and many days getting up to 14 degrees (and a few warmer days in there too).
So enough that you can hang outside a bit in T-shirt and pants and feel pretty comfy. You don't have to rug up as much, but you also don't have to worry about getting sunburnt or overheating if you are outside (as I seem to be a fair bit).
Basically it is a good time of year.
So as I chill out a bit, we are looking forward to the next few days....
1. Tomorrow we are picking up our Wedding rings, that have been made for us,customized and ready to pick up in Germany
2. On Thursday I will be picking up a good mate, Nathan Hartigan from Zürich airport, as he flies in to Europe to hang out a bit before his marathon in Hamburg at the end of April
3. On Saturday we are heading down, with Renate and all of her family to Toscany, in Northern Italy for some chill out time over Easter, staying in a limestone villa in amongst the olive trees and rolling hills of the Toscany region.
4. Friday I fly north to set up for the Brighton Marathon on the 15th April
5. After that I will be looking forward to the post race relaxation time, and living like a 'normal' person for a few weeks!
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