Easy? Um, no ... What's the old saying? "It never gets easier, you just get faster."

I will say it feels easier in some ways than last year, certainly easier mentally, but that's because I felt like last year's plan wasn't the best for me - too much wasted effort, not to put too fine a point on it. This year I'm doing more weekly mileage AND more miles in the "meat" of my speed/strength workouts, but it's all put together very differently, and at least so far it seems like my body is responding better. The test will be in April of course!