Week -3 is finished, so I'm officially tapering. I'm almost surprised that I made it this far. My total alcohol consumption in 2019 was like 3 beers and 2 glasses of wine, all in early January. I ran 743 miles in less than three months. I don't know if this made me ready, but I can honestly say that I put in the work. I also increased my VDOT by quite a bit, and theoretically, on a good day, it may be enough for a 3-hour marathon in Boston.

The week was alright, if not spectacular. I ran a 5 x 1200 on Wednesday. My legs felt tired, and it was a somewhat windy evening, and the workout was OK, but not great. Splits were 4:19, 4:20, 4:23, 4:23, 4:21, and it was rather hard, especially the last two reps. (The goal was 4:21, which corresponds to Daniels's 55 VDOT.) I think the main difficulty with this workout is its position in the training plan. I was playing catch-up with recovery... Lots of miles, then a 10K on Saturday, a 17-miler on Sunday (legs are done), the I get a rest day on Monday, and I can "recover" with 6 + 4 miles on Tuesday. Just rested enough to do the workout on Wednesday, but not rested enough to do it easily. Plus a 5 x 1200 is probably the hardest VO2max workout in existence. Oh, and do finish 11 miles for the day. Oh, and the following day you go and run 14 miles.

After two easier days the last 20-miler was waiting for me on Sunday. The weather was good and I felt great. I pushed it a bit and finished it at 7:23 pace with a 6:55 last mile.

I read yesterday that to be well-prepared for a marathon, one necessary condition is that the sum of your longest five runs should total 100 miles. (I'm sure this is just an arbitrary metric, but I was curious what coaches think about the number of length of long runs.) I added up mine: 22+ 21 + 20 + 20 + 18 = 101. But I think what counts more is the many 18-17 milers I had that I didn't count here, and those many freaking 13-15-mile midweek runs. I hope they do they magic on race day!