Thought I'd kid off this week's thread. Hope everyone's Sunday runs were great and that everyone is running smart and healthy. For the second weekend in a row, I didn't run. Getting ready for a longish today to make up for it. I did, however, spend about 20 hours painting my family room (ceiling, trim, walls...). My wife was thrilled. The miles and the pace bunny will just have to wait for now HM this Sunday. Shooting for 1:53 or thereabouts and running with another RA runner from the Northern VA forum (trikevin, AKA tecdad from our CR days). Kevin is doing the full and I'll pace him for the first half.

MrI, there seem to be a group of runners on the main discussion boards here that probably would fit in better under the old CR "Mainstream Racing". There was some good info in that thread but some of the elitism bothers me as well. I can't run even a single 6 minute mile anymore and I've never done a 40 mile week in my life but it doesn't make me slow or "low mileage". Heck, I'm over 40 and still running consistently. We'll see how well those young wipper snappers are doing in another 20 years. Fortunately, I didn't take the whole week off last week, just the weekend. Logged a fairly fast paced (for me in case anyone from the main boards is reading) 8.5 today. Nice weather and made me feel better about skipping my long run yesterday.

Bugs: The trail shoes I got are Adidas Reponse TR-X. Neutral shoe. Less weight and cushion than road shoes since it is a given you are running trails in them. They are supposed to stay dry with snow and dew and to shed water and dry quickly from water crossings. I liked them better than taking the expensive Kayano 13's through the water. I know that would hurt the cushioning for sure. 10-miler this morning. First 8 were okay pace then zap! no energy and it's two 11-minute miles too finish the run . I don't know what the problem is. Hope I can correct it with better eating and more sleep at night. HR avg for the entire run dropped to 130bpm. I just couldn't push it up and run faster. I would have stopped but it was an out & back route. MrI & Dave: Slow runners unite!

Inerita, You know 5 days of running is better than 3, be proud you have a life beyond running. I am so addicted to exercise I have a hard time taking a rest day. Dgb, You owe me a virtual race. P2R, You are an amazing runner. Don't forget it. Cash, Are you stronger on hills because of the biking? I'm trying to figure out how I improved in this area. Des Moines marathon has serious hills and I'm wondering if I should keep the biking in all summer. I could run on Thursdays, and then bike some. I did this for my first marathon after my LRs, pulling 80lbs (my boys). Wow was I good shape then. Erika, I keep thinking about how you trained last year. You've really done some amazing running in the last year. I would be thrilled just to do a fraction of that. I'm on a plan to go from 35 mpw to 50 in May. I am building from a 10 mile race in March, 20K in April, HM in May. Then I want to back off the miles and do several 10Ks. By June I want to go into marathon training. Not sure what kind of plan I'll do. Maybe a modified Hal Higdon, or see what runner's world smart coach comes up with. Think my problem with Hal's plans is that all he does is build miles. No specific time for speed work, thus I add it anyway. I need a longer more gradual plan. I know listen to your body, stay injure free, , prepare to adjust the training schedule, blah, blah, but blah...but think that sounds like a good plan for the year? Serious diet failure today.

So I'm dusting my car off this morning and I slipped and fell...twice. And people run in this crap? 8 easy last night and 5 easy this morning - on the treadmill of course.

Bugs the biking has helped my running. Running hills would probably be better than biking them. But biking them is better than doing nothing. Erika, my max heart rate is 192 beats a minute. Women do tend to have slightly higher heart rates than men, on average 6 beats a minute more at max. Hour of spin class 20 minutes of weights and 800 yards swimming.

8 mile run at 9 am. 75 degrees already. Gonna be a hot summer.

How many races have you run? How many miles have you run in races? I searched my logs, and this was my results: Entries: 34 Distance: 211.5 miles Duration: 29:49:18 Post your results.