My last open course marathon was the Marine Corps Marathon in 2019.  I had a good race that day, but the weather was atrocious, and compromised my chances of a PR.  I am now preparing to try for a PR at the Indianapolis Marathon in November, and just had a really great week of running.

Part of preparing for an open marathon race, is making sure you run enough base miles.  Lots of base miles builds the endurance needed to truly race a marathon.  Given that I am looking to run fast in Indianapolis, I am really happy with how this week went.

I ran a total of thirty-five miles last week, and this week upped the total, to just over forty miles.  The week ended with a solid, half marathon training run yesterday.  I felt really strong on that run and actually increased my run pace slightly for the last four miles, while still keeping my heart rate low.  That is a very good sign.

I am hoping to slightly increase my mileage again this week.  I will however be paying very close attention to how my body reacts to these bigger run distances.  Today, I took the day off, so as to give my legs and feet a chance to recover a little.

A new week of running begins tomorrow, and I will start to include a few miles at target race pace.  Base miles are good, but I also need to get my body used to running a little quicker.