Adventures in Onionism

Just got home back to Williamsburg after setting a PR and breaking 3 hours in the Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon. I told people when I got a job in DC that though I'd miss the Berkeley trails, I'd be fine, because I'd just get fast again instead. I'm happy to say that appears to be what I did. Drove to Williamsburg Friday and got a wonderful 11 hours of sleep. Saturday I tried out my absurdly expensive Nike Vaporfly shoes for a quick two miles with George, then gf and I drove to Virginia Beach to pick up our packets (she ran the half) and meet my cousin and her husband for dinner. George came along and goofed around on the beach a bit--dogs are allowed all day during the off-season. Despite this being at least my 85th marathon-or-longer, I was nervous for this, since (A) it was the first race in a while I had put real pressure on myself to perform, and (B) relative to my normal 50's and 100's, there's no time to make up time in a three-hour race. One ...

It's on. I just ran 6 miles at goal place, took full recovery, and ran 6 miles back at 10 seconds faster than goal pace. Friends told me this was a good test workout to see if you're read for for a marathon. Over the last two months I've been doing consistent weekend long runs of 17-22 miles, slowly getting faster, bringing it down from 7:22 pace to 7:04 pace, and today an average of 6:41. So, I'm feeling pretty good about beating 3 hours at the Shamrock Marathon in two weeks, even though I'm definitely worked after today's run. I've tried to do one real speed workout every week, but I haven't had the wherewithal to get up early enough and go across town to my friends' before-work hardcore workout group, so "workouts" for me usually just mean throwing in a couple fast miles. I've kept up the streak running, meaning I've run 2+ miles every day of the year so far. I ran 269 miles in February, which is my highest mileage February,...