March 25 (100 miles/week)

AM: 15-mile tempo @ goal marathon pace - 20 miles

I logged this long tempo run for a whopping nine laps around East Campus. Reed graciously offered to see me at least through the first three laps, but the flip side of this is that we started out a little too fast, running 9:05s when we should have been running 9:15s. That, coupled with a poor night's sleep the night before because we're puppy-sitting this weekend, led to a few positive splits near the end, but I hung on and still averaged right at the targeted 9:15/lap, which is 2:28 marathon pace. The main reoccurring issue I'm having is that my damn Lunaracers keep cutting into my Achilles, and this is the second long workout in a row where that's happened, not including the 4-mile race last weekend. I love these shoes, so I'm going to toy with a few adjustments to make them fit.

Bloody mess

I wasn't as fresh as a daisy afterward the workout, but I had enough in me to shuffle a 20-minute cool down, and I took care to bite my lip and get into the ice bath afterward. I also got in a much-needed nap.

This is my last 20-miler before Boston 2012. The last few weeks have been seen their ups and downs but have objectively been more "up" than down. Counting this week, I've averaged more than 100 miles per week since Christmas. For someone who isn't a full-time runner, it's tough to imagine putting in more work than that. The pre-test will be at Cherry Blossom next week in DC with a lot of fast and familiar faces, and needless to say I'm pretty pumped to race a distance that's always been a strength of mine.