Tempo: Three repeats of five minutes warm up/cool down pace, followed by five minutes of 5-10K pace.

Distance: 3.4 miles

Time: 30:21

Performance Stats (out of 5 ★)

Legs: ★ ★ ★ .5

Gut: ★ ★ ★ .5

Energy: ★ ★ ★ .5

Mind: ★ ★ ★ ★ .5

Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★

Soundtrack: Papa Roach, Metamorphosis

The excitement continues. Really getting into a taper is nice. One, it is a lot less running! And two, you can just feel the enthusiasm. I have a bunch of racers at work, and everyone was so excited to tell me how their final week is going when I walked in yesterday morning. I liken it to the night before some big exam in high school. Really, if you've studied all along during the semester, and got in the right amount of studying right up until the exam, there is not much that you can do (better or worse) the night before the test. Might as well sit back, review some notes, and enjoy yourself.

One mistake that I made this year was to get my bib number shipped to me. Sure it's more convenient, but there is a lot more fanfare about driving into downtown Hartford the night before and picking up your number. It's not quite a party, it's actually more like a bunch of running related items on sale, mixed in with some free stuff that you really don't need. But the whole environment of people coming down to get there number, rubbing shoulders with your fellow runners, is all the more exciting. I may actually just go down for an hour or so to hang out and check out the merchandise.

So not too much to do between now and race day. I have a short twenty minute jog in two days - I'm not even sure what that's all about! Probably just to keep you doing something. The key here is to avoid injury at all cost! Shouldn't be a problem though, all this training should certainly keep injuries away, and looks like it's going to be a great race when all is said and done.