I would have to get some technical person to help me figure out how to use emoticons. I have never ventured to do so. Quite often people have remarked that they aren't sure when to take me seriously or not. That seems okay with me. People can take what they want or need from any post on the internet. Of all the people who post on these running forums, I read almost everyone, ignore a few, but really sit up and pay attention to about six people. Ray, thanks. What is up next for you? Spareribs

Hey gang, Although I've kept quiet (so far) I have been enjoying this thread for a few days now. Great stuff! As a couple of you know, I ran my first marathon in many years last month. Not that I am in the mood to do another one next month, but I can't stop thinking about it. I'm tentatively planning my next near the end of the year. I will almost surely follow the same approach that Ray ("rbmoose") did by doing 2 big workouts a week and running very easily on all the other days. I used a scaled down version for most of the year that lead to a bunch of PR's from 5k-30k. At the end of the year I tried to tack on a couple long runs to what I'd already done and jumped into the aforementioned marathon. Although my time was decent, it wasn't nearly as good as the HM and 30k I'd run leading up to it and I suffered a whole lot over the last 10k. As so many of said already, I believe that these LONG runs witih blocks at M pace, and fast finish runs are a big key. That was something I didn't do much of but hope to be incorporating more of during the 2nd half of this year. Interesting stuff about the V02 max too. According to Tinman, at least, this applies even more to older runners than those who are still in peak years. Although we do lose some V02 max, there isn't a lot we can do at this stage to significantly improve it. There is much more bang for the buck in doing a high pct of training at right around threshold level. It can be improved at almost any age.

oops. as ribs points out, sometimes these threads stray from the original question. i'm sure everyone will agree thebest speedwork is the type that doesn't get you injured and puts a smile on your face.