A new week.  Curious if anyone here tried to get into Boston but couldn't? It is unfortunate it filled so quickly. I hope they limit the number of times you can run it, so new qualifiers can get in.

Off to the gym to find some new muscles to get sore. The running ones are EXHAUSTED.

Hey Paul, that's just what my week was supposed to look like! Looks like a Higdon Intermediate Plan to me... I base my training on that and tweak as necessary. Such as a 2 week taper, since my race is on the 4th. And last week looks like a cutback week, but it was recovery. We got snow the last few days though, and the temps are supposed to drop like a rock over the next 24-30 hours (like -20°F for tomorrow night), so I just don't know how much of that I'm going to get done. Somehow, I just don't want to run 50+ miles on the treadmill this week. (egads...)

Hey Bugs! I've missed you around here! I was qualified for Boston but decided this year that it was time to take a break. I've gone the last three years, finished (and PR'd) twice, and sort of hate to throw away that 3:32 qualifying time. But, it's so damn expensive for me to go and I'm so damn tired of training for marathons in January and February, I decided to skip 2011. Good thing. I never sign up right away anyway and would've missed that 8 hour window even if I'd wanted to do it! Will be interesting to see what changes are made for 2012. I would like to go again...

Hey, Bugs.  Great to see you.  Actually, I do look forward to snow -- we'll probably go skiing in Utah this winter, on the way to San Diego to see the grandkid.  We're trying to decide between staying at Snowbird or in Park City.

Perry - you running the North Central Trail marathon?

3 needed recovery miles yesterday, after that trail run on Sunday -- my legs are still a bit sore.  We need to run trails more often than every 8 weeks.

Paul - matching your mileage is what's important.  And I think we are all novice marathoners

I meant to come back in and report: 7 miles @ about 8:50/mi -- faster than "recovery" but slower than "GA".  Logging it as recovery, even tho the HR was higher than I'd have expected.  My legs are still tired/sore from the trail run.

Windy this morning, and still a bit sore from Sunday, but somehow managed to eek out 8 miles @ 8:19/mi -- this time I'm calling it GA

I put together my schedule for Boston yesterday, following the Pfitzinger 24 week/55 mpw plan -- only 21 weeks left until the race, and I'm already "supposed to be" doing tempo runs.  I need to do something about that.  For the most part I'm ignoring that schedule this week -- I'm doing almost what it says anyway -- I'll jump in next week, I suppose.

I ran 5.3 miles on the treadmill last night, I'm calling it a fartlek run because I threw in bits of about .3 miles at faster paces. Got up to 8:00 m/m pace for the last couple. That was enough. I'm still finding these treadmill runs harder than they used to feel and I think I've figured out why. I used to have it in the downstairs apartment (unrented, of course) but now it's in the garage on concrete. Before it was on carpet. I think that softened the incline somewhat. I always run at 1% on the TM, and before I remember thinking it didn't seem as "steep" as when I ran on the TM's at the athletic club. Well, now it's on concrete, and it feels like those others. Funny how something like that can make a difference.

We really cooled off here last night and today, but I'm still hoping to get out for a RAW outside. Too much treadmilling lately! Plan says 10 and I need some hillage. We'll see what happens.

Paul, that plan is good and has worked for me as the basis for my training for a couple years now. It doesn't have any "speedwork" other than MP runs, and no hills. So I add hills and tempo/cruise intervals to my schedule, but the basic layout is the same with the MLR on Wednesdays, a repeat of that on Saturday and the long run on Sunday. It seems to work for me!

Careful about bounding.  I think Bugs got hurt doing that.

5 easy this morning.

ya don't do the bounding. Run hills instead. Even Nobby tells runners that now.

oh good to be back around training talk. Group run this morning, and half were slow because they did some XTing the night before, the others are just slow, and the rest drink too much boose. I left them because I could not stay warm. I ran 10 miles, no watch, but I was moving fast to keep warm, and I'm sure they ran 5 and walked the hills. Just was so not in the mood to hear people b!tch about their lives and just wanted a damn workout.

The 5K with 25 laps around a track was hard on my right leg. I had to take several days of this week. It was so tight. Guess I won't do that again.