8 weeks to go

Another week of marathon training is complete.  I'll go ahead and call it a recovery week, maybe not in terms of distance, but definitely for pace.

Monday: 5.01 miles @ 9:36
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 8.18 @ 8:41
Thursday: 2.97 @ 8:10
Friday: 4.92 @ 9:15
Saturday: 15.22 @ 9:10
Sunday: 7.01 @ 9:23
Total: 43.31 miles

Slow, slow, slow.  I mentioned earlier this week that I was so stiff for the run on Monday morning.  Until Friday, my right hamstring was really tight only while running.  Wednesday's 8-miler felt really great.  On Thursday I came just short of 3 miles because I showed up late to the group run after having an 11-hour day at school.  I even changed into my running gear while driving to Levis from school (danger, danger, I know).  On Friday I was pressed for time, like I usually am on weekday mornings, because we don't get started until 5:15 and I need to be home and in the shower shortly after 6:00 to make it to school on time.  My goal for Saturday morning was 17 miles--and I could have done it; I just didn't map my run before going out and consequently underestimated the distance.  This morning I was moving super slow, likely because my body isn't quite used to going out and doing 15+ miles one day then keeping up with a group on the next day.

This morning during the run, I was feeling kinda down in the dumps.  Usually I am at the head of the pack with our Sunday morning group and they're all crackin' on me for moving too fast.  This morning, I fell behind immediately.  I was all by myself for a while, about 100 feet back, until Joe slowed down (it's been a couple of posts since I've mentioned that my husband is the shit) to keep me company.  I was all kinds of pouty, though, and insisted that he catch up with the rest of the group because I didn't want to slow down anyone.  I left them right before 5 miles because it was getting into my head that I couldn't keep up, so I did the last 2.5ish miles on my own.  I felt better when I was solo, despite not really moving much faster.

One friend told me that if she were me, after the 25K, she wouldn't have done much resting if any at all.  She gave the disclaimer, though, that she isn't known for taking required recovery time.  Another friend told me on Thursday that I should have taken more recovery time, rather than going out and doing 5 miles on Monday and only taking one rest day on Tuesday.  What should I be doing?  How do I complete these longer long runs each week but still keep my body feeling good?  Is this normal, or am I just making rookie mistakes?  If you've got an opinion, I'm all ears.