I decided to do yesterdays loop in reverse today. I figured that this would give me two advantages. First, I would be able to warm up on flat ground rather than running up hill. Second, I would be able to run up the canyon at mile 6, which is pretty close to what happens in the marathon. Turns out I was faster today than yesterday. The reason for this, I think, is that the downhill mile and a half out of the canyon is the last section of the run so mentally I'm able to take the breaks off and push myself. When the canyon downhill is the first part of the run, I feel like I need to keep something in the tank for the remaining 5 miles of the run. I need to work on cadence a bit on the flat land though. While its alright if I just finish the marathon in under 4 at this point, I would also like to give myself a shot at beating my PR of 3:38. | 