It's official, and running sick

First things first: It's official. I'm registered for the Buffalo Marathon. Now I just need to NOT GET HURT. I registered right before prices increased, and I found a coupon code for $11 off, too! Nice! By the way, I exited out of registration the first time I attempted, deciding instead to wait a little longer - closer to the price increase, just in case - and the race sent me an email encouraging me to complete my registration, along with a coupon code. I'll remember that little trick for the next big race I try to register for!

Beach run was meh, but I did enjoy the beach later! 

Anyway, now I need to get into marathon shape, but unfortunately right now I have a weird cold that settled immediately in my chest. For whatever reason, I am prone to chest colds - the slightest allergy or viral exposure, and I'm down with a cough and tight chest. Luckily, I didn't miss much, since I got sick during my scheduled cut-back week, anyway. I reduced both my overall mileage and my long run this week, choosing to run only 16 miles on Saturday. I adjusted speedwork and tempo days by opting for the lowest number our group was doing: ie, only four of the "four to six" sets on Tuesday, and just three tempo intervals instead of the max of four on Friday. I ended up about 5 miles under the week prior. Several of my runs were VERY slow thanks to being sick, but I don't mind that at all if I'm recovering - I go by feel anyway. But I felt bad enough to struggle on my tempo intervals, and nearly collapse at the end of my 16 miler on Saturday, which were run on a sunny and windy beach. I ran out of water around mile eleven, and by the time I hit the lone fountain at 14.5, I was DONE. I jogged home, water sloshing in my belly.

I'm a little concerned about my upcoming marathon because I seem to be having a hard time with regaining endurance. I always get endurance back before speed, and by now - I've been running on and off for about ten weeks post-injury, with some time off at the discovery of Foot Fracture Number Two - I should feel like distance is easy. And in a way, it is; it was no problem to ease up to nineteen miles for my long run. But I keep feeling like the wall is looming on each run. Perhaps that's because they've been fairly fast long runs, for one reason or another, so I'm burning through fuel rapidly. But I'd be happier if I felt stronger on my long runs. I talked to a few people in my group, and they seem to think that I should focus on my weekly tempos, and try to do the longer workouts on those days (we have a group training calendar that leaves a lot up to the individual, including how many intervals or miles and what pace!). Their thinking is that I need to build strength and endurance at faster speeds to sustain a good long run (or race). We shall see. I don't always love those tempo early mornings, but I do want to have a good race. Not a PR, just a good race. No reason to humiliate myself!