Jon's Prescribed 2-Week Taper Program for Condura

With the Condura Skyway Marathon less than 2 weeks away, I couldn't really decide how to taper...or if I really wanted to. I recalled that 2 days before the 30K Rizal Day Run, I did a 10km tempo run but in the race, I managed to hit my target finish time. I wonder if my finish there would've been better if I took a taper program seriously.

So I sent a note to Jon last night, who's now known in Takbo.ph threads for giving advice on how to run faster and I chanced upon a particular thread. I first met him during our 2nd LSD run at Cardiac Hill where I believe the peeps were pressured to finish faster than usual because of him. I admit, I do admire his accomplishments in terms of finishing times, especially for 5K. 5K in 17 minutes!!!! :P

Jon with Gegie happy (and not tired) after finishing the 'easy' 19.5km Cardiac Hill LSD with us

This morning, I got a reply from him prescribing to me a taper program for my first marathon in Condura. I believe this is based on both my 2:51 finish time in Rizal Day and my 4:30 target in the marathon. Here it is:

   THURSDAY - 5K Tempo @ 5:30 pace with 2km WU & 2km CD

   FRIDAY - 8K Easy

   SUNDAY - 15K  Long Run @ 5:41 pace

   TUESDAY - 8K with varying distance accelerations at marathon pace

   WEDNESDAY - 6K Easy

   THURSDAY - 5K Easy

   FRIDAY or SATURDAY - 3K Easy

   SUNDAY - 42K Race Day!

He even sent me a link to a cool pace calculator...one that I've been trying to find in the Net for a long time. Click this one...pace calculator.

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I did the first prescribed exercise today instead of tomorrow at Ultra as soon as I left the office. Since I was there already, I also did the Dailymile 1-mile challenge and finished in 7 minutes flat!!! :) It should've been 2-3 seconds faster since I didn't place my Garmin in autolap, did it manually but I'm happy with my time already.

Here's my 1st exercise in the taper program as prescribed above (the THURSDAY):

   2km warmup @ 7:00 pace
   1.6km @ 4:20 pace
   3.4km @ 5:50 pace
   2km cooldown @ 5:54 pace
   TOTAL = 9km

I'll do the 8K easy tomorrow so I can relax on Friday for the Saturday SWAC 4. :)

I'll try to follow Jon's recommendation and, with the proper carbo loading & a little weight loss, I'll see if I can do a sub-4:30 in my first marathon.

Good luck to everyone running in Condura! :)

Mapping Ahead Condura 42K - REVISED

Sharing this one for those of you running the full marathon next month at the Condura Run... :)

CLICK HERE for the REVISED Condura 42K Skyway Marathon map

Instead of running tonight, I spent this part of the evening mapping out Condura's 42K route from their site just to get an idea how far I would've already ran before even reaching the Skyway.

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Revised as of today, January 23, with details following the Bull Runner's post here.

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Using Running Ahead, it turns out that:

  * Before reaching Kalayaan flyover going to Buendia Ave., you would've ran about 12km.

  * Before entering Skyway would be more than 16km already.

  * Turnaround point at Bicutan interchange would be past the 25km mark.

  * The so-called "Condura Hill" with the interchange of flyovers going to the airport would be 30km in the race.

Even with the revised map, the 4 tiems above still follows. :)

Notice that the map only shows 41+km. It's understandable as this mapping tool isn't 100% accurate. We'll see what Garmin has to say in the actual race.

Good luck to everyone--both 1st timers (me included) & seasoned marathoners! :)