Teresa, nice photo!! They should be proud. Holly - also try to remember what it was like a few months ago when you were having trouble stringing two of those miles together. Very impressive run! I did 6 on the TM, after driving thru a giant slushy (rain first, turned to hail, which turned to snow). It was hot and crowded as you'd expect and so I only managed two tempo miles at 6.7mph and the rest were easy. Then 15 min on the bike, and 30 min on the stairmill. Tomorrow, I want to do 16, and it will be snowing!

Teresa, what a good looking boy, and congrats to him and his team. Okay Holly, two more of my cents and I will shut up. Unlike Stumpy, I am not envisioning a fast fiveK for you because I strongly hope you will not taper or adjust your workouts to accommodate it. Train right through it and keep your eye on the real prize which is the marathon. Let us suppose you are running 50 mpw, and now you have a fiveK next Saturday. It would be very tempting to ease off your mileage, take Friday off, etc., all to have this race be successful. In fact, you should do the opposite. Be sure to run on Friday, although don't do any speedwork except perhaps some strides, and approach Saturday's race as if it just another training day. Don't cut back on mileage at all. Your race will be harder this way, and your time may not be as fast as it would be if you gave yourself a bit of rest, but it will help your training immensely. There is also the possibility that you will surprise yourself and have a great race. Don't rule it out. Larry, I am not ready to race. I am in Phase One of three phases of my recovery plan. Phase One means that I am going to cap my weekly mileage at 40 and no more, and run 40/week until I am sure I am comfortable with that weekly mileage and not fatigued. I am pleased that I am not feeling that right glute/ham injury any more at all, thanks to the good core work I am faithful about doing. In Phase Two, which I expect to begin around April I am going to gradually begin adding some quality miles, just two workouts a week, one on the track and one on weekends incorporating a few faster pace 800's and miles into my normal long run. This phase will last all through the summer. None of this speed will include VO2 max work, but I may run an occasional race just for the fun and social aspects of it. I miss racing and really only run to race. In Phase Three I am going to sharpen with speed, run some key races and kick the asses of all the slow people who are passing me on the running paths today. I estimate I will be there by November. Thanks for asking. Spareribs

I ran marathon #199 today. Flat bike trail and ok (cold) weather. And it was one of my 10 slowest ever, not counting the insanely hard trail races. Of course, I stopped at M20 for about 15 minutes to eat soup. This is a true story.

Good job, SR! I guess after you've run 198 marathons, a few minutes here and there don't mean much! Do you have special plans for your 200th marathon?

I ran marathon #199 today. Flat bike trail and ok (cold) weather. And it was one of my 10 slowest ever, not counting the insanely hard trail races. Of course, I stopped at M20 for about 15 minutes to eat soup. This is a true story.

congratulations. you are amazing. slow? well, weren't you sick just a few days ago? what kind of soup?

And some days it snows! (Hey, that rhymes!) SRL, congrats on #199. The 201st for Jack sounds like a really nice idea, too. Teresa, nice pic of your son and his team. I didn't feel like running in the snow, so I went to the rec center and did 5 miles on the indoor track followed by upper body weights. DD stayed home, as she's still sick, poor kid. Tomorrow she's talked me into taking her and a friend to the new Watchmen movie - the IMAX version.