California International Marathon Training Log (Week 7) | The Road to 2:20

Week 7 of 12: The marathon long run

Nov 03, 2025

This week marked week 7 of 12 of my official build toward the California International Marathon (CIM) on December 7, 2025. You can find previous week’s here:

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This week was somewhat of a “down” week compared to last. I “only” ran 75 miles, but achieved that in 4 days of running. I allowed myself another recovery day on Monday and fit in two cross-training days on the bike to round out a full week of training. The key session this week was Saturday’s marathon long run—yes, you read that right. I ran a full marathon on Saturday in training. It’s actually something I like to do once per marathon block as both a physical and mental test. The goal is to run at 85% to 90% of goal marathon pace (which I succeeded in doing) and keep relaxed. It’s one of my favorite workouts every block. They say you don’t run a marathon to train for a marathon—something I wholeheartedly disagree with!

After watching the NYC marathon this morning, I’ve got even more anticipation to race in just over a month! It’s amazing the vicarious motivation you can gain just from watching others shoot for and achieve their goals.

October 27—November 2, 2025

Weekly totals:

Running: 75 miles (4 days of running)

Cycling: 5 hours 11 minutes (2 rides + some commuting to and from the gym)

Week 7/Day 1

OFF day — Will I continue to take Mondays off for the remainder of this block? Who knows. Sort of enjoying a weekly rest day, and it seems to be benefiting me mentally and physically.

Rode my bike to and from the gym, did a 30-minute sauna, and did some walking and upper-body exercises at home.

Week 7/Day 2

Workout: 20 miles easy

Ran from home to downtown today.

Shoes: R.A.D Running UFO

Week 7/Day 3 (Treadmill Workout Wednesday)

Workout: 2 x 5k + 3 x 1k with a 3-mile warmup and cooldown (to and from the gym)

The wind gusts today were pretty brutal—reaching 30-50 mph at times—so I decided that a quality session would be best suited for indoors. This workout was a bit slower and more relaxed than something I might do outside, tending to linger more in the “tempo pace” range than something closer to race pace. It can sometimes be hard to dial in a very hard effort on the treadmill, in my experience.

Workout splits: