oooohhhh, only 12 more weeks. This counting down is kind of scary.

So I went up north Michigan this weekend. My husband had a 120 mile bike ride, and so I looked around for a race. The town XC team was having one, so I got my SIL to sign up with me. She has only started running again a few weeks ago, so I told her I would stick with her. We were in 2nd and 3rd from last place for most of the race, but then she needed to walk and we were passed. When we got to the finish, I told her to go ahead, I hope I'll never be anywhere near last place again, so I thought this was my chance to be last, and I took it. I was 80th. My SIL was extremely appreciative of my staying with her, and the course was Beautiful. So it was a win-win situation. Then they had prize drawing. They drew sticks from 1-80 and we were called up if we finished in that place. Yep, you guessed it...Number 80 was called.  I won a $10 gift certificate to a local bookstore. So it became a win-win-win situation. I think I would like to actually race this one next year.

After the race run, I knew I needed to get my track work in, and really I hadn't put in much effort at the 5k, so I got dropped off at the local track and got my 4x1200s done. Ran home to my MILs for a total of 9 miles. I will say, I'm pretty proud of myself doing those intervals. It would have been so easy to slack. But....only 12 more weeks!

Damaris, thank you for the course elevation. I'm so disappointed that RWOL deleted all of their old stuff, cause all of the RRs and logistic stuff about MCM from previous years is all gone. I may go over to that forum and ask if anyone has RRs from before. I love reading them. Does your blog have an MCM RR from last year?

I hope your kitties get better. I'm really surprised that cleaning supplies can cause all of that.

How was Cirque du Soleil?

Patty, great job on the 16. I haven't gone over 12 this year. But I did get over 40 miles this week. Your inspiration story is great. I'm always amazed at what "regular" people do. We really can do so much more than we sometimes think. I've heard that somewhere on the MCM course there are signs for fallen marines. I think about that sometimes when I don't want to keep going. I'm kind of dreading that in the race, cause I'm a big cry baby...and there will be tears. Especially now that my son is in the Army, I am more sensitive to that.

URD for me today. Drove home from up north and I'm just too tired to run (okay, after what I just said in the last paragraph...it's kind of ironic).

4 miles easy today.  Yesterday was a SRD except for some serious housecleaning which seems to be a good recovery activity, darn it.  Having some Garmin issues, low battery after Saturday's run (3.5 hours but I'm going to need more battery life than that for MCM).  Fingers crossed that deleting old activities will free something up in the watch.

Kim - nice job on the run with your SIL, I love that you made a point to be last and got a door prize : )

Damaris - yay for a great long run and thanks for the elevation profile!

Week 12 makes it sound so close, wow!

Hi, ladies.  I did the 6 last night.  Tonight, I have 9 with 8 X 400s.

Kim, how old are you?  Even if you don't have your max, you could estimate it.  The Maffetone Formula is 180-Age and that usually gives my HR at 70-75% of Max (or 143).  I use 155 of Max for marathons, which is 80% of Max, but I think MP should be 80-85% of Max.  Maybe with that you can have an idea (calculate Maf and that should be around 70% of your max).  It's not an exact science but it might give you an idea of where it should be.  Like you said, your heart rate appears to be low so sounds like 10:52mm is too soft for you.

And they were hard! 99F heat index and 75DP might have had something to do with it, though.

6 miles tonight.

Nice workout, Patty.

All of my intervals have fallen on days with the heat index is 97-100F.  So I assume they felt too hard because of that, but I can only wonder, since I have not done structured speedwork in months.  I usually do just fartleks or sprints.

6 miles this morning - 1 mi wu, 4 at 10:30 ish pace, 1 mi cd.  Felt good, just a bit rushed to get in the distance in the morning before work but glad I did it!  10:30 is probably my ideal marathon pace so this is a good test : )

Kim, hope your busy week goes smoothly!

Damaris,  your attention to speedwork is inspiring - not my favorite type of run but I can see the benefits when I do it.

I switched my schedule a bit to fit in the long run Friday evening because I had a RRCA coaching class all day Saturday and Sunday.  16 miles Friday with friends (yay) and dinner after at my house (lots of fun). Seeing the advanced marathon plans some of the groups built for the class gives me more appreciation for my plan : )  10 easy miles the day after the long run?!

That 16 was tough though, the humidity was noticeable and I was actually really thirsty while running - I drank about 60 oz of water & electrolyte drink, thank goodness there was a water fountain at the halfway point.  If I'm reading the weather chart right, I think it was close to 90 degrees with dewpoint of 70 degrees when we started out at 3:30 pm.  Maybe not "brutal" but definitely noticeable : )

2 easy miles yesterday - legs felt really tired starting out but feel great today, even after hours of sitting.

On to week 11...hope you both had a fun weekend!