Mary-One of my volleyball players from a few years ago had anorexia. It was tough seeing her wasting away and not acknowledging her problem. I know from that experience that much like alcoholism it becomes a constant battle. It is more about control over something than anything else, and going through a divorce I could see where someone would want to find an area of life they felt in control over. The good news, my former player did recognize what was going on, got help, and is doing very well now. She is in the military and is thriving. It is good to see your friend has some good support in you, and I wish you both all the best.

Happy Birthday to PBJster #1. I am sure it's hard to believe that he is turning 14! He must be popular with the ladies.

Er, Meg, PBJster is a girl, not a boy. It's doubtful that a boy would be having a slumber party with 6 teenage girls for his birthday.

Two things made me really happy on this site today. The first was seeing Tim get his six miles in and then calling it a day. It's good to use that kind of judgment and not insist on finishing a workout for the sake of finishing a workout. When you're done, you're done. Good for you. I never would have expected to see you do that. The second thing was to see Holly do some recovery work before she started her strength/core work today. I have no real problem with that workout yesterday, but I believe it was mistimed in your program Holly. Running all those miles at BQMP right now seems like a big workout, but it was good that you did some recovery work today. You may expect to be a bit dead-legged tomorrow and if so, just a few easy miles will be fine. I also completely agree with your comment about mixing things up a little is great for a program. When I used to do wave runs every week, the time seemed to fly by, just because it was something different. Tim's friend is correct when she says practice at what it is you are trying to achieve; I would simply say do it later in your program as you are closing in on running at that pace. Here are some variations for you to consider next time out: 1) Go ahead and run at BQMP. For you right now, that might be closer to tempo pace or HMP. I don't know your paces or times or what is required for your AG for BQ. But in any case, try a run where you do fewer of these miles, but you continue to shorten the rest interval, e.g., 1:45 next time? How many seconds is the difference between your 2-minute recoveries and "full recovery"? That would be important to know. I am generally fully recovered after two minutes idle. 2) Use BQMP pace in your wave run, or just alternate miles at that pace in the middle of your LR, just a few. CNYrunner is a good model for you. Toward the end of her marathon training she would do a 20-mile run with the first ten easy and the second ten at MP. That's where you aim to be toward the END of your training. After the next day's recovery run, you want to get to the point where the following day you have some sproink. Post tomorrow how you felt during your Saturday workout, and if you feel crappy during it, don't worry about it, or force it. SLO, if you are not in marathon training right now, a good rule of thumb is not to concern yourself so much with the distance of your weekly long run, but with the time. Consider two hours as the optimal time for a LR, and the beauty of doing it by time is that on the days you feel peppy you can go a bit longer. On the tough days, you slog it through not so many miles, but the workout is capped at 2 hours. Erika, I agree with you. You really put in a very long and hard day. This week is a cutback week for me, planned a long time ago. I took Tuesday off, my first since January 8th, and yesterday morning, as other Iowans here will attest (SLO?), it was rain and lightning in the a.m., so I bagged it. Today I ran 5, 3 slow and 2 easy. Mariposai, MCSolar and others we know are at Ragnar this weekend, and I wish them well. Spareribs

It's doubtful that a boy would be having a slumber party with 6 teenage girls for his birthday.

And may I ask......why not Thanks Ribs....this injury junk really taught me a lot, more than most realize. So now it's the "Mellow" - Smarter TimBo...but still hold'n on to my type A personality though. TBo

Holly, I can see you doing this kind of workout about 8 weeks before your target marathon this fall and building toward continuous MP miles with NO breaks in them, as I suggested ala Karen's workouts. There is nothing wrong with it right now, as it is good quality work. I just thought it was a pretty tough one doing 8 of those miles. You will be the judge of what is best however, as you do a self-check tomorrow and Sunday. Post how you do tomorrow in terms of energy. Spareribs

Enke.. aren't those hills fun! Here is a comparison of the elevation profiles for my run today from RA log vs Motionbased.com with their "gravity correction" Which is truer? (hint: this is two identical 4 mile loops and I started and finished at the same spot) vs

This was a pretty exciting day for me. No I did find that I could suddenly run again! Not that exciting! Today I accompanied the team I advised to the Nasdaq where they "opened" the market. At 9:30 they push a button that I am pretty sure is not attached to anything. Still it was a really interesting ceremony and a lot of fun to attend. I had planned to explain here why my doctors want me to see if I get better with rest for another four weeks before doing an MRI. But the explanation turned into a very long note with a bit more mathematics than I figured people wanted to wade through in the daily! I decided just to post it in a separate thread for the few that might want to see all the gory details. To make a long story short my doctors are worried about false positives from the MRI that will lead to unnecessary and unhelpful surgery.

Hey Masters! Good runs out there for a Friday. 6 very easy miles for me today....untimed, just slow. I'm doing a 25K Beacon on the Bay in OKC tomorrow. It's not a goal race....preparation h for marathon in April. Enke....good luck with those shoes. I'm getting a new pair of Asics tomorrow, too. Still trying to get pictures out of my cell phone of the Atlanta trip. I have never used the phone as camera before and I need a cable to hook up to computer. So I hope to have the Atlanta report up by the end of the weekend. Carp, I almost forgot the song lyrics.... You never give me my money, You only give me your sympathy. 'Cause I keep on running, There's no way to catch up with me. I'm leaving you, don't make no fuss; You won't even see me, oh no, for dust. I'm running with the pack, Running with the pack, I'm running with the pack, Never looking back. Bad Company