This week was a recovery week.  I ran so little that it seemed as though I hardly ran at all, but for the recovery week, I still ended up running 33 miles.  It should have actually been 35 miles, but I cut a 7-mile run on Tuesday down to 5 miles as I just wasn’t feeling right.  I think I was still a bit tired from the 14-miler on Sunday.  Plus the weather on Tuesday was 4-5F higher than normal and much more humid.

As a matter of fact, the weather this whole week was more humid than I’ve been used to.

I ended the week strong today with a easy 5-mile run, but I ran it at an average of 9:22 min/mile.  I actually did the first 3 miles at a 9:00 min/mile pace. When I go back in my logs, the last time I ran faster than 9:22 was a 7-mile run about 6 weeks ago which I did at a 9:18 pace.  Even going back 5-6 months, today’s run is the top 4-5 fastest runs I’ve done, excluding races.  The 9:00 min/mile pace I ran for the first 3 miles is significant as that is my marathon goal pace.  Now I just need to be able to hold that for 26.2 miles.

This coming week is a 38-mile week, but I suspect I’ll probably eck out an extra couple miles to make it a 40-mile week.  After next week, I wouldn’t be running less than 43 miles per week until I’m within 2 weeks of my marathon.