4 weeks until marathon

The week started out with double recovery runs on Tuesday - 6 miles in the morning and 4 miles at night. After staying up later than usual for a couple of nights, I didn't get up at 4:15 Wednesday to do my run and ended up running it after work - 11 miles total with 6x1200m at 6:54 pace with a 2 minute jog in between. Thursday morning I got up to do my 15 mile run and I felt very sluggish and uncomfortable and ended up stopping after 7 miles. At first I was worried that this was a symptom of over-training but eventually I figured out that there just wasn't enough recovery time from the hard run the day before. I wouldn't plan to do a double consisting of 11 miles with VO2 max and a 15 mile medium-long run in less than a 12 hour period, but that's exactly what I ended up trying to do. I ran another 8 miles Thursday night to finish up my 15 for the day.

Friday was 7 miles with 10x100m strides. I did them just a little bit faster than I have been and my legs felt strong. Saturday was a 5 mile recovery run. Sunday I went out and did the hilly 9.5 mile loop and then came in and did another 11.5 on the treadmill so I could watch the Red Sox game. 21 total and 70 miles for the week. 1 more 20 mile run and then it's taper time.

Today I wore the running shoes I had planned on wearing for the marathon. Just before 20 miles my left foot started to hurt like I was getting a blister. I stopped and changed my socks, but it was still sore. These are well broken in but have less miles than my daily trainers and I wouldn't expect to have blister issues at this point. I think I'll just break in a new pair of the shoes that I use the most and use them for the marathon.