Just a quick update, as this past week went by much like the one before it. I hit right around 90 miles again, but I felt it was a much more relaxed effort. The long run in particular -- 20 miles again -- didn't hurt nearly as badly this time, and it was several seconds per mile faster.

I had one real workout, which was a 10 x 3:00 on / 2:00 off. I didn't feel great going into it, but I surprised myself by the end. Again, it's very difficult to get the legs to move as quickly as I'd like so early in the morning, so it took the first few reps for me to find my pace. In the end, my first rep was at 5:42 pace and my last was at 4:56 pace, which is a huge range. In the future, I'm going to focus on pushing myself out of my comfort zone for the first few reps, and making sure I'm warmed up enough that quicker paces aren't such a shock to the system.

This week (which I'm already well into) I have some easy morning 14-milers and a 15-mile moderate run on Thursday, plus a 22-mile long run on Sunday, which will be my longest of this cycle. Everything is going very quickly and very smoothly so far.

One thing that's comforting about training during the pandemic is I don't have to worry about getting sick! In a normal marathon build-up, my immune system struggles to keep up with the training and I'm always concerned terrified that I'll come down with a cold in the weeks leading up to the big day, or start to feel the sniffles as I'm traveling out to the race. Sometimes you do everything perfectly to prepare yourself, and a little 35-nanometer rhinovirus decides to ruin it all for you just to be mean. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that added stress this time around.