Longest Training Run Yet

Today I did my second "20" of this marathon training and managed to crank out another couple of miles at the end for 22 total. That's the longest "training" run I have ever done as I have usually shied away from runs longer than 20. I have talked to a few people about the Ft. Collins marathon and all have remarked on the downhill grade as a tough test of the quads. As a result I decided to do a couple of my long runs on similar terrain to the course. It turns out that running from my house down to Cherry Creek State Park and then to Cherry Creek Mall satisfies that requirement pretty well. With a loss of about 800 ft the profile is pretty close to the first 20 miles of the marathon. With this 22 mile run and the 20 miles to come in three weeks I should be ready for race day. 6 weeks to go!