Miwok (me, walk?) countdown

I mentioned before that my taper for the race this weekend has been to do lots of walking. I have been dropping the boys at school early (6:30am) for basketball and have spent an hour before work walking. I try to walk at a brisk pace to help convince myself that it is still a sort of training (even though it is totally flat near my work). It has allowed me to explore the Guadalupe River Trail which is near our new office. It is a little longer than the map indicates as you can continue north of 880 right alongside the airport. There are lots of runners out there in the morning which has made it VERY difficult to just walk. I have had to hold myself back on numerous occasions. Last night I decided to hit the gym while Freddy was at (yet another) basketball practice. I wanted to test my walking pace at various inclines on the treadmill. I started at 15% doing 3.5 mi/hr then I dropped it to 12% and upped the speed a bit and then to 10% and upped the speed a bit more. It was hard to keep it as just a walk at 4 mi/hr so I decided to see what speed I could run at these inclines without working too hard. I upped it to 4.5 @10% and then 4.2@12% and then tried to keep it at 4.0@15%, but that was work. I then tried to make myself walk a little more, but once I hit the 2 mile mark, I just couldn't take it any longer. I dropped the treadmill down to a 2% incline and ran the last mile at an 8min pace. It felt good. I needed it. I made myself walk at the end to assure all was good with the legs. So, I sorta ran 3 miles yesterday. I only have 2 days left and plan near total rest. However, I think I will do my countdown runs like I did before my first 50K last year. Today I will run a very easy 2 miles just to stretch the legs and then I will do 1 mile tomorrow of simple strides to keep things loose.

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