Marathon training update: 6 weeks down

This weekend marks the one-third point in training for my second marathon. My long run on Saturday was 10 miles, which I completed at an average pace of 8:55 per mile--I finished just under an hour and a half. Honestly, that's kind of on the slower end of my usual these days, which is weird for me to say. Last time, just this past summer, I was averaging about 10:10/mi for runs of 9-10 miles. My long run pace was never under 9:00 per mile last training cycle; I didn't start speeding up, ironically, until after the marathon. It was a red-letter day if I finished a long run faster than 10:00/mi pace.

Just before my 18-mile training run last September, I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and a bone spur on my right heel. I made it through training and the race just fine, and it seemed to have calmed down quite a bit, until this month. Sad to say, the spur has been causing me more problems lately. It's been hurting during a run instead of just mildly uncomfortable afterward. I hope that changing to a fresh pair of running shoes will help, but I'm kind of nervous about it being so painful this early in training. 

This weekend the long run jumps to 14 miles...