Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon: 12 weeks to go

I tend to forget that I'm running two marathons this fall as the Toronto Scotiabank
is the first on my calendar. I'm excited to do a marathon in Toronto, my home city and where I do the vast majority of my racing in other distances. The second marathon is a month after Toronto, the huge Marine Corps Marathon, which I did last year. DC is like a second home to me, since R. works here (i'm here for the July 4 weekend).

So while I'm 12 weeks away from marathon No. 1, MCM is also on horizon. A big reminder of that was in full effect this weekend as I was running parts of the marathon course in DC. To catch up, this is my recovery week following the 70 mile, 18-week Pfitzinger program. I ran 5 miles at recovery pace of 8:42 per mile on July 4, but had to take a lot of detours as they had blocked off the Mall for fireworks later in the day. They had reopened parts of the Mall yesterday so I did part of that plus the Tidal Basin, at a faster-than-intended 8:15 mile pace.

We've had a good weekend here, weatherwise. Not as hot as it can get, so I haven't had to get up super early for running. And we've had a lot of cloud cover, which was great for today's long run. I am definitely have not adapted to the hot weather this summer as I found the humidity a little hard to run with. You'll see my splits for my 14 mile show a slow warmup, plus some walk/water breaks I took throughout

1. 8:59
2. 8:27
3. 8:12
4. 8:08
5. 8:02
6. 7:55
7. 7:50
8. 8:26 (walk/water break)
9. 7:42
10. 7:36
11. 7:44
12. 7:31
13. 8:19 (walk/water break)
14. 7:30

14.2 miles in 1:53:49 with average pace of 8:01. Not a bad average pace and miles 6 to 14 contained some strong ones. I really needed the first few miles to get used to running in this heat. A year ago, the 7:37 range was marathon pace so I'm gratified to be able to knock off those types of miles with too much effort. My test of Boston pace will come in about three weeks with a 12 miler at pace and I also have a 30K race in mid-August that I intend to do at the proper pace.

Weekly mileage: 56 miles (90K)
Year to date: 1185 miles (1907K)

This was my upcoming schedule according to Pftizginer:
Tuesday: 10 miles with 5 at LT
Wednesday: 14 miles
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: 11 miles
Saturday: 8 miles / 10 x 100
Sunday: 21 miles

This is pretty much a peak week since i'll hit 69 miles. I have a 10 mile race on Sunday, so it'll complicate things. I'm going to have tough days from Tuesday to Thursday (10, 14, 11) then a tough weekend (21 miles and a 10 mile race). I'm not so sure i'll be in good condition to race Sunday so it may be an LT effort. The key for me is to get my long run early on Sunday then carbo load like crazy to replace the glycogen. And also rest most of that day.

Monday: 5 mile recovery
Tuesday: 10 miles with 5 at LT
Wednesday: 14 miles
Thursday: 11 miles
Friday: REST
Saturday: 21 miles early morning, rest, rest, rest
Sunday: 10 mile race all out