What do you mean by a training cycle? Some of my in-between days can be considered rest days because all I might do is take a walk and do some yoga. I was planning on starting hills today and doing them every sunday instead of my 5 mile run, but I have a rib cage pull a few inches under my armpit and I had to hold it steady while I ran on friday, so I can't run right now. I have no idea how I pulled it.

I'd be able to start hills next sunday, but I would be running on saturday and monday, too, and I have a race on the 16th so that doesn't seem like a good idea to change my training that drastically that close to a race; by starting hills as well as running three days in a row. I'll probably begin hills on the 23rd, which is the sunday after the race. Some people say I should wait to do hills and speedwork till I've been running 6 months anyway, and early Jan will be 6 months, so I am still on schedule.

Thanks for the advice on the track and hill training. I think those warm ups and in-between easy intervals you suggested will be especially important since I will be running in winter in MA. (I want to avoid any more muscle pulls).

Oh. Ok. That makes sense. Your way, I'd always get those rest/cross-train days. That's probably the best avenue, especially since I am 51. I don't want to inundate you with questions, but what is the difference beteween a long run and an "easy" run? Is an easy run just a shorter run at long run pace? I tend to do my runs at about 75-80% of my maximum. I have not done a long run yet. I am gradually increasing the training runs distance from 3 miles and now I am up to about 4. By late December I should be training at 10K distance. I think it would be very interesting taking a long run once every 6 days, as you suggest. What kind of distance do you think I should try? I would like to add that I do not intend to become a distance runner as such. I am striving for speed in the 5K's and 10K's. Maybe 19 minutes in the 5K and 40 minutes in the 10K. Oh, and thanks for the help. B-)