A big day today, with my last Long Slow Run planned

My last slow run is planned for today, and the weather is bad.  I have to go out though....this is my final practice.  For some reason, I'm feeling strangely nervous.  I suppose there is a lot riding on this, and it has to go well.

I've eaten very well (lots of carbs and fruit) and have had plenty of water over the last couple of days.  I'm practising the 'routine' today:
- up and had breakfast of shredded wheat at 7.30am.
- banana at 8.30am
- stretches
- I'm running in the exact kit I'll be using on the day
- on the day, I'll be starting between around 9.45 and 10am, which is what I'm planning to do today.  This means running through what would normally be lunchtime for the first time, which is another reason why fuel is so important.
- iPod and Garmin are fully charged
- I'm practising with the water, Lucozade and gels to coincide when they'll be available on the day.

On a different note, I've written before that I'm a huge poker fan.  Well, Vicky Coren, a world famous poker player and the first woman to win an event on the EPT (pocketing £500k in the process) was on TV last night.  She was on Question Time, and did brilliantly.  Poker really is moving into the mainstream, if it isn't already there.  Being a poker fan, I've read her autobiography which does give a glimpse into the world of poker and is a good read.

Anyway, off out for my LSR....

The above was written before my run, with the below being the aftermath of the run


.....and I'm really pleased to say that it went well!  I did 21.5 miles, which is the furthest I've completed, so I'm chuffed as I could have carried on if I'd wanted to.  That's it for the long runs now, and my tapering starts. I'll probably do a 10-12 miler next weekend and maybe a 6-8 the weekend after (interspersed with some smaller runs during the week) and then it's the race weekend.

I think I've got my fuel strategy sorted now as well, as today after the run I feel pretty good considering.  Today I:
- drank 1 3/4 litres of water!!
- drank almost 1 litre of Lucozade
- consumed 3 SiS Go-Gels.

Today, I think it's fair to say that the weather was changeable.  I started out and it was raining hard, but that passed and then the sun came out.  Then after about 18-19 miles it absolutely chucked it down with rain, but I suppose it wasn't too bad.

So all in all, a good start to the Bank Holiday weekend and I'm pleased I got my last LSR out the way early!