Two weeks to the Paris marathon

Two weeks to the Paris marathon.  The build-up over the last few months has not been documented for various reasons but the clichéd last long run before the marathon has me thinking: keep the updates simple and daily; get thinking, reflecting, use my words, get writing.  Again, I go back to my motivation for writing up my thoughts of Bo in the desert.  I’ll keep these to myself, for now, but I know at least one person will read my rambles...

So, the last long run before a marathon.  Where did that concept come from?  Tim Noakes? Arthur Lydard? Runner’s World February edition?  I know there is physiological adaptation to the stress-loads that need time to come into effect but what is the time frame?  When should my, and that is me, not anyone else, when should my last effective training load be done for maximum benefit?  Two weeks before, ten days, a week – long enough to recover but not too long before it is lost.  What other runs should I do beforehand?  I don’t know – but as I get ready to go out, I decide that I will write about it and decide afterwards if it was the right thing to do.  Sounds completely the wrong way round but hey ho, off on a run I go.