Chicago countdown: 35 days to go

Well, another week is in the books and we're down to five weeks till marathon day.

Two more hard weeks, then the taper will begin. I can't believe we're already here. The next 14 days will have two challenges.

The first will be next Sunday when I race the Scotiabank Waterfront half marathon. I ran this race in 1:36:24 last year and I know I can best it (my PB in the distance in 1:34:29). The problem is that I've been in marathon training, which has me aiming at a pace of 4:45. My half marathon racing pace is typically in the 4:30 range, and I'd like to push it down to 4:20 to 4:25, which will put be under 1:34 minutes. I think i'll have to do a pacer at my half marathon speed to get used to it.

The second will be the final week of heavy running, with my last 20 miler scheduled. I have now done two runs in excess of 20 miles, so it hopefully won't be that hard to put in.

This week's been good. I took an extra day off, but still managed to top 50 miles.

Weekly total: 87K (54 miles)
Time run this week: 7:24:04
Year to date: 1,961K (1,218.5 miles)
Marathon training to date: 909K (565 miles)