Jpni & Phyllis, congrats on your great races and tks for sharing the picutres. Awesome!

Debra, sounds like you got some serious activity done while on vacation! good for you!!

Mary Kay, I'm concerned about your condition. I sure hope you get a definate prognosis soon and can get whatever it is taken care of. I agree on the WC Fields film...LOL.

I'm wondering what up w/ Active.com. For over 2 yrs I've logged my running on this site. Now there is a notice that site is going away at the end of October, but go on over to our new site.....sign up for training ($$) and continue keeping up w/ your activities.  Bummer. I've downloaded the records in excel format to my hard drive, but it won't have all my records re shoe mileage, etc. Oh well, life is about adjusting to change. I also keep record on Garmin site, but it doesn't track shoes.

DD & I did our long run today at the local dam. It is a mixture of trail, grass and pavement. Some hills, some flat, good variety. It wasn't too hot, which was nice. We did 11 miles, using 1:1 run:walk ratio in 2:21:12

for avg 12:28 pace. Feeling ok. After shower, I put on my new compression socks. They ARE PINK!!! But they feel good. Hope they help recovery. I also ordered some CP-X Compression 3/4 length tights. Hoping they help too. Both the socks and the tights are $$$$., but if they help recovery and prevent injury, they will be well worth it.

I've really enjoyed watching the olympics. The young US guy who ran the relay on a broken leg .....what an inspiration!!! His mantra....faith, focus, finish! I'm gonna borrow that and just add form to make it faith, form, focus, finish to help get me thru this GOOFY training and over the finish line.

Safe and happy running my friends!

Ron-amazing time and amazing improvement.  Way to go.

Marie- a half, then a full the next day.  Yes, I think you may be certifiable!     Certifiably tough.

Debra-that was quite the vacation you had.  Glad you got some time with the books!

Long run today, 18 miles, 3 laps that brought me back to my driveway where I would hydrate and grab a Gu packet or chew.  Trying to do the long runs very slowly, keeping heart rate down.  Averaged 14:09m/mi, seemed to take forever!  Didn't have the lake so had to hit the tub for cold soak.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow?!

Webpro: training for marathon takes balancing workout regime according to many articles and one of the concerns is to avoid (for lack of better word) reaching your "peak" too early which is what you want to achieve on race day. I kept that in mind while training for my first marathon. So only ran 24 miles once about 4 wks prior to race then tapered down about 4 miles each week.  I am just saying that it made sense to me to save my energy & muscles for a longer run (aka' race) rather than hitting the wall too soon prior to race day due to overtraining. Its remarkable how disciplined we can be when we have a goal to reach for personal achievement & find we can overcome challenges we didnt think we could. Your progress is simply amazing!! I know you will finish!

AZ~Keep up the great training, and you are going to rock your HM next weekend! 

Tony~22 miles....you are amazing!  Those supportive spouses surely come in handy delivering gels, water and encouragement!

Dan~Nicely done on the 18 miles! 

Ron~Congratulations on the stellar 5k PR and AG win! 

Marie~Pretty in Pink!  Let us know how the compression gear works for you.  The $$$$ is holding me back, but if the benefit is better recovery I may have to bite the bullet.

marykay~Hope you had a nice 5m walk/run and trail hike this weekend.  Praying it all turns around for you soon.

Had a lighter mileage week of  5 mi., 5 mi., 4 mi., and 5 mi. today.  Struggled with today's 5 mile run.  I had a difficult time getting into a good rhythm, and the bike path was very congested with large touring groups of cyclists. Too many late nights watching the Olympics may also be a factor.  Excuses, excuses.  Onward to a new week of training, and putting today's lousy run behind me.

Run strong, friends!

Yes, I am still alive and running.  I haven't posted for some time because I haven't had anything much to say.  Nothing new on the grandchild front; all is still going normally and they are on track for the August 30 projected due date.  Stay tuned.

We finally have some cool mornings, so I've been going out between 6 and 7 AM, two days on, one day off.  Since I'm not training for a marathon, I'm not putting in the mega-miles that some of you are doing (Tony, this means you).  We have several miles of gravel trails at our campground and I prefer that softer surface to the road.

Mary Kay, I add my best wishes to the others for a full recovery.

Marie, you are setting the fashion bar pretty high with those pink socks.  Can you post a picture?

Dan, congratulations on the 18-miler.  Good planning that you can stop at home for refills.

No races for me until mid-September.  I'll increase the long run to nine or 10 miles pretty soon, but now I'm doing 4-9 miles, four days a week.  Really nice that we have 60-degree rather than 70 to 75-degree mornings.

Steve I'd pay dearly for cooler weather

Urun2me Thanks for the rant!!!! my thoughts exactly. your preaching to the choir.

Debra   this week will be better. the Olympics are over.

Urun, glad you could work that out. You've been a huge source of optimism and I hate to see you stressed. Is there anything else sapping the fun?

Steve, we both have HMs in Sept but you seem so relaxed about yours while I am uber stressed. Hope I can catch up and get some of that calm.

Debra, the last bike path I ran was congested with cyclists, too. How annoying! Sorry you struggled with your last 5 mi. but one lousy run in four? Sounds a little normal to me.

Az, You will kill on Sunday! You've logged a lot of miles lately for a HM. Good luck and Enjoy!!

Tony, your training is amazing! You are so ready!! Glad to see you are also enjoying it. I'm gong to try your Heed routine since I have a sample and found myself really wasted toward the 2 hr mark on Saturday. Gel makes me feel sluggish; I'd rather get liquid nutrients so may also add in a Hammer protein product. The Perpetuem tabs hurt my teeth.

Dan, 18 mi.!! Awesome work!!

Ron, congratulations on the great race result!! I will be re-running my first 5k soon and can't wait.

Marie, I missed the message that the thread is closing in October. I am really bummed. I want to save the posts but it would take forever. This has given me such enormous strength and motivation. So glad you mentioned "faith, focus and finish". I've found running affirmations or chants or whatever to be very useful to shut the committee in my brain off, even for short times, when I know I can push farther but it is telling me I am too tired.

Went out for a 5-7 mi out and back on Saturday. I know it was too soon but HAD to. Later I realized why. I needed to stress my body to see what hurt just in case all still wasn't well. If I needed another procedure, I didn't want to wait another two weeks playing with the pain and doubt. Besides, it was a test to see how close I was to training for the 9/29 HM. I was invincible for 15 min., managed the next 30 min. (3mi), battled the voices telling me to stop for another 15 min., and numbly waddled for another 15 (5 mi). Then when a bike passed really close, I realized I was drifting all over the path and decided to walk the last two miles. I was dizzy nauseous like you get when your blood pressure is too low but the hr monitor was fine so I kept walking and survived.

Work has been ridiculous. I should have taken those two weeks the doctor offered but this stuff would have been awful had it gotten two weeks older. Anyway, because of this I opted not to coach my newbies on Monday night. Next morning received notice that one of the group members died of a heart attack during the run at 51. Oh, so sad. He had a history of heart problems and was jogging to protect his health. This may make me selfish but I am glad I wasn't there. Still reeling from my own events, I can't imagine seeing this would have been good. But this and discussion with co-worker raised my fav issue: How much of the common lore about aging is science and how much is myth; Do we really have to be satisfied with mediocre results just because we are older? So co-worker sent me this article that I really enjoyed and want to share:

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/1,7120,s6-238-244-633-14401-0,00.html

Last night did speed work with co-worker's running group. Well, I did half of it and then joined a woman who was new and walk/running. probably covered 2.5 mi at most but at a steady pace that was much lower than my race pace. I have no idea what it was bc motactv was acting strange. How does this speed stuff work in the long run? I'm asking because I'm wondering which would be better for me, to do this or to just run 4-6 mi.

Stay strong and fierce!