Meg, your GA or "easy" pace ought to be about 2 minutes off current fiveK pace, so unless you did that fivek in 5:37's, your current GA is a bit too fast. I agree you should check McMillan or one of the other charts. They are all close to each other. BTW, it is common for people to work off "desired" fiveK paces in figuring this, but current is best, and as you are still in recovery and building mileage you must use caution. Mileage growth + Speed = Injury, and this is particularly true for those coming off injury. Lame, I am sorry for your difficulties and the recent diagnosis. Meg's advice sounds encouraging. When I was dealing with sciatica my PT encouraged me to do a variant of "Cobra", the yoga pose. Lying prone, lift your upper body only with your arms. In other words, do not engage your core at all. Your buttock muscle should be totally relaxed. Hold a few seconds and repeat. This exercise helps to offset pressure on the disks from all the forward leaning activities we engage in every day: sitting at a keyboard, driving a car, etc. It worked well for me. Tim, I feel for you. But you must get yourself together and act wisely. Listen to Twocat. Time off won't be the end of the world. The Saint and I have entered Saturday's "Jogger Egg Nogger", where they serve spiked egg nog after the race. It's a very popular race in Dallas and all my friends will be there. As most of you know, I cannot race yet, but am trying to run a fiveK each month as a test of my fitness during this recovery time. So far my average pace in minutes per mile for the fiveK's I have run since my surgery have been: 10:24 9:02 8:45 8:37 On Saturday I am trying for sub 8:30's. Notice that this is slower than many folks' GA pace, but as long as I am making progress I am happy. Spareribs

Thanks for the hugs all! Thanks Meg, I am glad to hear the shots were so helpful for your DH; I just wish I could get started sooner. I have been dealing with this ( the syptoms) for three months and not able to run for the last 5 weeks. Cross training is ok, and I am grateful for all the Y has to offer, but I do miss running. Spare, thanks to you too. I should ask if I should go back to PT. I sent my PT the MRI results.

Ribs, no way was I running anywhere near 5:37! I wasn't running that fast in 5Ks when I was running 6:30 marathon pace. My recent 5K, run only because my law firm twisted my arm to run as part of a team, was 20:10 or about 6:30 pace. Granted, I did not attempt to run this race all out but even so I doubt my 5K pace is much better than 6:15-6:20. Based on that 5K, McMillan has me at 8:00-9:00 easy and long, recovery at 9:00 plus, tempo at 6:50ish, and steady state at 7:07 to 7:20. It predicts about a 7:00 pace for a half, which is about where I think I am right now. Assuming GA equates with the harder end of easy, it should be in the 8:00 range so 7:37 is definitely too fast. In fact, it appears to be in no man's land training-wise. I will try a tempo run at 6:50 next week and see how that feels. Judging from your progress, you are doing great Ribs. It must be nice to see that time come down every time you run your 5K test. Lame, I'm sorry you have to wait so long for the shot. Is there no way to get in earlier? I think a visit to the PT would be a good idea too. The PT was able to show my dh a lot of good stretches to help. Yoga has helped him a lot, as has incorporating core work at least three times a week. Holly, interesting stuff on women vs. men. I am one of those who gets cold easily. In suffer from Reynauds and it comes on almost always when my core temperature goes down. I don't have problems when I run because my core stays heated, but just sitting someplace cold for awhile will bring it on. I have a space heater in my office that runs almost all the time - summer and winter!

Lame and Meg - I'd be very interested in hearing more about the shots. My dad has severe back problems and is contemplating getting the shots. He last email to me said: "So…I will give it a bit longer and if it continues I will go see Rosa, give up and have them shoot the steroids into my lower spinal column. My only reason for not having it done sooner is the experience at SJH when that Dr. Fluke took 6-attempts to finally get the needle inserted for my last dye test. It was a real &itch!!!" I am assuming he's talking about the same thing (??). If so, I will push him a little harder to get the shots since it seems to have positive results. Lame - When you say RA, I, again, am assuming you're talking about rheumatoid arthritis? My mom suffered from that for years. Hopefully, there are better medications available now to keep things in control (?). Tim - I echo the others' comments, although I know it's hard for you to hear them. The main point is risking the possibility of permanently injuring yourself and never running again, or sucking it up, lay off the foot as necessary, and come back whole and healthy. Many of us have been in your position, so we understand the frustration. But don't let frustration rule out wisdom. Tuff 5-miler this a.m. I think I overdid it with the strength training yesterday, and my legs are positively dead now. I dread the idea of climbing the stairs here at work. I took a couple of walk breaks, but still managed a 10:00 av pace, surprisingly. I had planned to take tomorrow off because I'm going to a concert tonight, but was feeling slightly guilty. After this a.m., I am now guilt free!

Due to the bad weather, and the fact that I manage a Collision Center... I am really too busy to even post this today. But thanks to everyone for your encouragement and words of wisdom. And BTW, I'm really not going to try and run, ok....just really bummed and frustrated right now....and say things I shouldn't. Oh yeah, someone mentioned me stretching my achilles...if I tried to stretch that area even slightly right now, I would be back to square one again. T Bo

DG, listen to Meg. Why not go run a fiveK? You can calculate all your other training paces from it, the key to using this as a base is as Meg points out, to run your interval workouts slower than fivek pace, not faster. And Meg, I like fast finishes too for LR's, provided there is a cool down period. I also see that using your last fiveK would give you easy, or GA of about 8:30, but I think 8 to 8:15 would be right for you. Spareribs

One of the common myths about Lydiard's training had to do with "lots of aerobic, easy miles," because at first not many understood that what Lydiard meant by "easy" was far from slow. He wanted to see his runners do a lot of mileage with some energy in them. As much as we talk about Pfitz, McMillan and the pace charts, what it all boils down to is that you will improve your running if you can train your heart rate, and you can pretty much learn this yourself. Returning to Meg for a moment, the day we ran together we did about 7:30's, and that seems to be her "easy" or GA pace. It sure isn't mine! I'm much slower. She has no difficulty putting energy into her runs. WRFB is another good example. His easy run is at a pretty quick pace. Some just do it naturally. And where I am right now in growing mileage, I can't get too worried about stepping on the gas just now. I'm looking at slow, steady mileage growth that my old body can stand. But for others who want to improve, you can ensure getting the HR up a bit during what would otherwise be a slow run by incorporating fartlek work, strides, etc. during your run. That is just what these workouts are for. Just don't do too much speed in an off-day workout. This means that if you do two key workouts per week, say a LR and a mid-week track workout, then you will have two recovery days and three days left to do easy work. In those three easy days, you should aim for either a specific pace, or try to incorporate some pickups, strides, fartlek or hills. Otherwise you will find youself just jogging around all the time, as I am doing now. Good topic Bill. Spareribs

Meg - Thanks for the info. I'll pass it along to my dad. I remembered while reading your comments that they've told my dad he has significant arthritis in that area where they would be injecting, which I presume is the reason there were difficulties in the first place. Although his doctor did come back and say that although Dr. Fluke was a really nice guy, he probably was the best person to do the job in the first place. Wha??? I got a bit miffed when I heard that. Tim - Oh, alright. You're forgiven. But at least you know we'll be on your butt when we think you're about to do something stu, um, not highly recommended.