Fourth week of marathon training is finished. No injuries. (Phew!) Long runs on the weekends were 6, 9, 12 and 10 miles, respectively. The 6 was easy (of course), the 9 was OK, the 12 was hard-ish, the 10 (yesterday) was easy. I was a little sore this morning, but I could run today with no problems (I won't - I have a rest day).

26.2 miles *still* sounds intimidating. Still, my longest run ever was the 13.5 miles on June 20. I have 12 weeks and I have to build enough fitness to even finish a marathon without walking! For me the definition of walking is taking more than 10 minutes to complete a mile. So I think for my first marathon, I will not aim for 3:30. It is too risky. I think I will go out running 9 minute miles (4:00 pace), and if I feel awesome at mile 20, I will speed up.

I have this schizophrenic feeling that I run at speeds that are suitable for a 3:30 marathon goal, yet, I don't believe at all that I can run a mile in 8 minutes - and repeat it 26 times! It is too intimidating to even think about it. 9 minutes/mile - therefore a 4 hour marathon - that seems somewhat reasonable - but then I would need to train at speeds that are uncomfortably slow for me. Maybe once I get to the 20-mile long runs, I can slow down...

I am close to the end of the second week of training and everything is fine. My left foot is acting up again - this time it is more like a plantar fasciitis - but it is isn't too bad, so I won't take a break. I bought a really cool pair of Adidas shoes on Amazon for $40!

It's probably less than ideal that most of my training is on very hilly course, and my marathon will be completely flat. But what can I do? Now that we moved we have hills everywhere around us.

This week I will achieve the ~28 mile week, which was my most miles in a week previously in the beginning of June, close to the end of my half marathon training. Next week I will be at or above 30. Cool!