You can do this!!  I just finished the march to 1243 yesterday, but I too am going for a 200 mile month (my first) in December.  I'll be running with you in spirit, man!

Go get 'em, heffa!

Ripper - Thanks for the encouragement and congrats on crossing the line.

Brian - I'm sure you'll be back at before you know it.  A little running is better than none.

My trail training continues and I made big progress on the bunny while I was at it.  I managed a good 20 miler on a rather difficult trail today.  I'm gaining more respect for the trail ultra concept each day.  That is some tiring stuff.

Out the door for Pine Mountain 40, a pretty tough run through the woods. Ugh.

Well, I finished in 9:37 or so, 6 minutes slower than last year but then I was probably better prepared last year. Road marathons are not the best preparation for a rocky, rooty 40-miler. I really had a bad case of clumsy today with 4 falls and a couple dozen stumbles, that's what not doing enough trail runs in training will do to you. I got stuck behind a big pack of runners that were just slightly slower than I wanted to go and couldn't get past them on the narrow singletrack until about mile 12 and by that time I was a full 10 minutes off last year's pace. So I made up some of the time anyway. 

There were some areas where a tornado went through a few months ago and it was utter devastation, every single tree was either torn out of the ground or snapped off a few feet above the ground, it looked like a gigantic weed eater came through. I'm amazed that the trails were cleared enough to have the race although there were a lot of trees we had to climb or jump over. 

Due to the many foot-stubs I may lose a couple of toenails. I need to work on my footwork. 

Here's the training plan for the week:
   MWF: 2 minute walk/2 minute run x 10 (approx 2 miles running total) on treadmill 

   Sun: 3-4 mile running on treadmill, exact run/walk intervals TBD

Brian - Does this mean your evaluation went well?  Starting to ramp back up?

Russ - Great job on Pine Mountain.  I have a new found respect for trail runs.  I can't even imagine tackling 40 miles on technical trails.  I'm hoping to come out unscathed from 50K on easy trails.

My runs have been going great over the last couple of weeks.  I'm making steady progress on my fitness and the bunny.  Logging the runs has been difficult because I am in the middle of a big computer network upgrade.  For the time being I'm logging my runs manually from my work computer.  At the house I am working on moving the desktop to a new room, reloading the existing computers with new software, transferring files between computers for new users (DW and son) and setting up the new laptop that I bought myself as a Christmas present.  My Garmin 305 decided to fall apart the other day and I managed to glue it back together but the computer upgrades have got me thinking that it would be a good time to upgrade Garmins.  Any recommendations?  I'm leaning towards the 310XT.

Thumbs up on the 310XT. It's got a big, beautiful display and really great battery life. 

I couldn't agree more about the 310 XT. It's more comfortable, in my opinion, than any of the other models (405 included) I've had. I charge mine (when I'm running a normal) every 7 to 10 days.

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2.2 mile run/walk (75% running) on the treadmill yesterday. No pain. I had a little tightness in my other (healthy) calf so I kept the pace and run times down for fear I'd tear the other one.