Here is my usual weekly report. I'm up to 41 miles per week, with my long run being 18 miles (29 km). I got a little tired at the end, but it went fine. My pace fell to 9:30 min/mile, but I should be OK as long as it is at most 10:00 min/mile. 20 miles coming this weekend.

Speed workouts are great, though I really hate the many mandatory warmup/cooldown laps, because it is really boring (it's why I hate swimming in swimming pools). I ran 10 laps for warmup and 9 laps for cooldown yesterday. In between I ran 6x800 meters with 400 m recovery in between: my 800s were all below 3:30, which is promising, as I still kept myself to the required pace for a 3:30 marathon. Nevertheless, I don't think I'm capable of running 3:30, but at least I'm more and more confident that I can run 4 hours.

Training is fine. I'm in week 9 out of 16 now. I've just started speed training today: 12800 meters on the track, out of which 3x1600 meters is fast (7:16 goal time for 1600 meters) and 400 meters recoveries in between. The rest is warmup and cooldown. Altogether that is 32 laps. It was quite boring: I was running around for more than an hour. But I did hit my goal pace every time, so things are good.

So many people run so much better, hobby runners doing marathons in under 3 hours, it seems like a sub-4 hour goal is lame... Anyway, I'm on track. Achilles is still acting up, but my cold is gone, and I did a nice hill workout yesterday. This week will be step back in mileage from 37 last week. Easy workouts are only 4 milers and the long run is mere 14 miles.

It is raining every day here, but I still managed to catch a rain free window every day. No treadmill running yet, fortunately. If it is not too cold outside, I would rather run in the rain. But if its cold and rainy, that's a bad combination.

Week 6 of the training is done, the marathon is in 10 weeks.

I had this dilemma about the my goal pace, and the last decision was to settle for sub-4:00, but I still trained like I would prepare for 3:30. I was sort of expecting to blow out, because if I'm only capable of a 4-hour marathon at this time, I thought that a 3:30-goal-pace training would result in overtraining and fatigue. I was ready to feel the effects by week 3-4 and then I thought I would switch back to a 4:00-pace training.

Instead, training went quite well. I was tired occasionally, but it is natural. In fact, I decided to shift all my training one day ahead (that would be much better for schedule) by skipping a rest day. I did that, but then I got sick (basically the same day I ran on my rest day - so it didn't have anything to do with training), and I had to skip the following day. After all, I stayed on schedule. (I intend to skip my rest day today.)

Yesterday I had my "predictor" 5K on the university track. Still having some chest congestion, and after a 30-mile week, I headed to the track. I ran 3200 meters before the actual test. So keep in mind: this was no regular 5K. If was after a long and hard week, I was still a bit sick, and I ran 3200 meters just before the actual test. Then I set off for 5000 meters, and I clocked 21:44. I am more than satisfied with this. This proves that I don't overtrain, and in fact predicts a sub-3:30 marathon.

No, I still don't think I can do that. But I think I can keep training for it. We'll see what's happening on marathon day. There are too many variables.

It is pouring rain today, and I still have a lingering cough, but I'm skipping my rest day today to get an easy 4 miles in.