10:10am/41 degrees/11.51 miles

Though today is technically Long Run day, it’s also where I typically begin my free fall into laziness as part of the taper process.

The Boston Marathon is two weeks from tomorrow, and one thing I’ve come to appreciate over the years is the importance of rest, even at the expense of being neurotic about logging miles during these upcoming two weeks. I’ll be somewhat active over the next week with shorter runs, and maybe next Sunday I’ll do 7 or 8, but that’s pretty much it.

So today I did 11.5 miles. I didn’t really put any intensity into it; I just wanted to get the miles in. It was also the last time I’d be taking on “Mt. Windham,” the steep hill leading up to Windham High School. I had set my sights on challenging this “hill” ever since starting training back in December, and today I wanted to run the steep half-mile hill one last time.

I was able to cruise up the road relatively smoothly; not necessarily as exciting as Rocky climbing the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, but to me it had the same payoff. This hill was a pain in ass ever for the last four months, and I wanted to finish it off one last time.

Click here for today’s running chart from Runkeeper.com