Glad to see last week was better than the week before. Hope to see no failure's and less partial checks in this weeks runs!!

Thanks, Pam! Me too!

Oh Mr. Bonkin... (tapping fingers patiently on the table, waiting for you to check in....) Hope all is well, Mike.

Training Update So I'm so far off the mark regarding the originally planned training schedule, I'm not even going to go through the depressing comparison. On the upside, I've run more this week than I have in 3 1/2 months - so all is not lost. Got in a total of 32 miles with an 11+ mile long run yesterday. Damn it's starting to get hot! Regarding El Scorcho, I'm not sure how close to being in decent enough shape to run a good 50K. If I feel close than that would be great. If not, as we get closer - I'll consider downgrading to the 25K. I've been doing a lot of thinking on where I want my running to go - I think the best two things for me to work on over the summer are 1) be a lot more consistent week to week and 2) build up mileage levels back to the 40-50 neighborhood. For fun, I've been considering starting the Summer of Malmo plan. With this summer heat settling in - moving a chunk of my miles to the mornings makes sense from both a temperature and consistency perspective. Initially, I would just make the tempo run and interval days the double days and then grow it from there. I would also maintain one long run per week. My plan was to start today - but alas I woke up too late. So maybe I'll go for a short run tonight and see about getting up early tomorrow.

Hi Mike. Like Wingz said, consistency is key. Whatever plan gets you out the door day to day is the one you should do. If its a 20-30 mpw plan or a 60-70 mpw plan, it doesn't matter. Getting out the door and doing SOMETHING is what matters! Good luck Mike, and don't melt out there!

Yikes! I don't think I'll be doing any Summer of Malmo plans anytime soon. You're right - consistency had gotta be top o' that list! How'd you feel last January when you were logging all those miles? Was it a good feeling? Draw on that memory to help pull you forward...

Thanks Wingz. It felt great running back then. I was focused on a goal for my February marathon and it was 30 degrees out. Now I have neither. Makes it a bit more difficult. Well, technically, I have a goal for sub-5 hours in the 50K at El Scorcho - but my heart's not in my running right now.

Some food for thought on the Malmo Plan, Particularly about running doubles read Pfitzinger's "Should You Run Twice Per Day?" The other thing that scares me about that plan is the 200's workout. While building up to your goal mileage I would not run any tempo or interval workouts. I would wait until you reach your goal mileage and are ready to level off. The amount of stress by increasing weekly mileage is already pretty high. For speed I would consider some short stride sessions, that are with no anaerobic effort.

Tom, Yeah - I've read Pfitz' view on doing doubles. I ran my both of my marathons using his training plans. Since last June, I've had good success with doing tempo and interval runs during mileage buildup - so I'm not too worried about it. I'm with you on the 200s, though. Being a Pfitz fan, I always run intervals at 5K pace. If I do the intervals at all - they will likely be more in the 800 neighborhood.

Hopefully next week has fewer excuses.

Thanks, Blaine and Pam! Well, some good news and bad news about me and my Malmo plans. My DW has decided to get off the couch - after a rocky and injury laden attempt to run last fall. She's joined a local gym and is going in the morning before work and someone (me) has to stay home with the kids until she gets back. As this makes both of us happy that she is getting back on the exercise wagon again - it didn't feel right to let her know that would mess up my running plans. So I'm back to my normal schedule of night running with an early Sunday AM long run. Ah well, maybe another time. On another note, while I am a little tight in places (upper body and abs) - my legs feel great after yesterday's run. I am going to use this feeling to try eliminate the excuses this week.