IN A MELLOW TONE

Well, today was the last long run of my buildup to the Edinburgh Marafun, and to use that oft quoted medical term - my legs were shagged.
My "plan", for what it was worth, was to have a fairly "heavy" three week period that included the Edinburgh to North Berwick... then to taper. And for what it was worth I have stuck fairly closely to my plan. However, I think I have underestimated the E2NB a wee bit. To be honest, although its "only" 20 miles, if you go at it full pelt it can still take a lot out of you.
The rule of thumb (for marathons) that I stick to is that it takes a day for every mile that you race to fully recover. Now, that doesn't mean that you cant run for 26 days after a marathon... lordy no! Often I run the day after. What, I think, it means is that it takes about 26 days to fully recover full race fitness.
So, as I say, while the E2NB is only 20 I think the same basic principle applies it does take a wee bit to fully recover the fitness in the legs (maybe not as long as 20 days). And given that as well as the race I ran every day last week including a 10 mile run at race pace on Tuesday and the fastest run I've ever done the 6.77 in the "Dear Green Place" on Thursday it's probably not too surprising that the legs still feel heavy today doing 21 miles.
I shall take my taper a bit more seriously than I have in the past this time I think.

I am also going to prepare for my race with the help of "the Lords music"...Jazz!! Last week before the E2NB I was listening to Gerry Mulligan and Ben Webster's version of "In A Mellow Tone". A wondrous thing to behold... Webster has such a deep, rich, velvety tone from his tenor sax that it's really at the lower end of the tenor spectrum, while Mulligan conversely makes the baritone sax "floaty light"! The two don't quite "meet" tonally - but come as close as dam it and compliment each other wonderfully. It swings!! I think I listened to it about three times in a row. Don't know if it helped get me "in the zone" for a run - but it didn't do any harm.....
So... I would not race with an MP3 player - BUT, I have 4 mp3 players. Including an old 128mb one that really is on it's last legs (probably couldn't buy a 128mb one these days). So what I think I'm going to do is put some tunes on it. Listen to music up to just before the gun goes off... then chuck it (obviously I've got some crappy throw away earphones too).
Last year at Edinburgh they had some moron with a microphone who was trying to "gee up" the crowd for about an hour before the race. Think Id rather listen to my own stuff.