Training Week 9 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 5mi Recovery w/6x100m Strides - Check WED: 10mi w/4x1200m @ 5K pace - Check FRI: 4mi Recovery w/6x100m Strides - Nope - Skipped SAT: 8-15K Race - Big Check SUN: 17mi Long - Half Check The interval workout on Wednesday at my new 5K pace went well. Took Friday off as I felt I wanted a bit more rest before Saturday's 10K. The 10K went fantastic and I set a new PR by more than 6 minutes! WOOT! I ate like a pig all day on Saturday and ended up not getting to bed until after 2:30am. So this morning's planned 17 miler didn't go as planned. I felt fine at first and ran the first 3 miles at recovery pace. The park's water fountains - which I normally refill at - were all shut off - apparently because of the freezing weather we had earlier in the week. Today was in the 70s! Not hot for Texas - but scorching compared to the 30s we've had this week. When I got back to the end of the linear trail - I made the decision to bail and head home for almost 11. My legs were still tired from yesterday's race - and that was just going to have to be good enough. One more good week of training next week and then the taper begins. I may add a couple miles to next week's planned long run of 16 up to 18. Maybe not. We'll see when we get there. In total for the week, I got in 34.8 miles versus the (adjusted) planned 46.

Holy crap Mike!!! That was just a PR, that was a total rewrite of your running abilities! What a great final tune up that was for your soon to be huge PR marathon coming up! Awesome!

WTG, Bonkin! Now your 10k PR pace is actually faster than your old 5k PR! Or look at it this way, you also set a new 5k PR at some point Saturday in addition to your 10k. IF you averaged 7:56 per mile for 10k, you should be able to race a 5k about 15 sec per mile faster, BTW.

Thanks, Jeff! Yeah, I think I have quite a few easy to knock over PRs now. Re: the 5K pace - I thought we just sorted out 2 weeks back that my 5K pace is around 7:25? Which would be 25 seconds faster than the 10K pace. At least that's what I plan to go out at in my next 5K. I know - I know. Only one way to find out.

Slacker! Might as well quit training now . Big congrats on your 10K PR...6 minutes is huge. You'll rock Cowtown fo-shizzle..

I think you are right and I will just quit now. It would be a good way to prevent injury. Thanks, Steve! Appreciate it!

Training Week 10 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 8mi w/5x600m @ 5K pace - Check WED: 5mi Recovery - Check FRI: 4mi Recovery w/6x100m Strides - Nope - Skipped SAT: 10mi w/4mi @ Tempo - Check SUN: 16mi Medium Long - Check So the week went well. My plan had a final tune-up race planned for Saturday - but I'd already decided to skip this and replace it with a tempo run. I just didn't feel like running on Friday - so I skipped the 4 mile recovery run on Friday. I ended up doing the 10 mile tempo run today after yesterday's 16 miler - so I was pretty tired starting out. Things picked up after 3 miles and it ended up being a nice run. This week ends phase three. Now the two week taper begins. I'm not stressing over the mileage going down as much as maintaining my calories so I don't put back on the weight I've managed to lose during this cycle. I'm a long way away from the 15 pounds I wanted to lose - but I still managed to drop 7 or 8. Good enough. I'll worry about dropping some more pounds over the remainder of the year. In total for the week, I got in 39.1 miles versus the (adjusted) planned 43.

Training Week 11 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 7mi Easy - Check WED: 8mi w/3x1600 @ 5K Pace - Nope - Skipped SAT: 5mi Recovery - Nope - Skipped SUN: 2mi Medium Long - Check It was an okay week - for a taper week. I REALLY struggled with trying not to eat too much - very difficult with the reduced running. On Wednesday, I had a calf cramp and I just did not feel like getting out there - so I skipped the interval session. The next day - the calf felt better - I was feeling like doing the interval session - but thought it wasn't going to help me any at this point - so I just let it go. Skipped Saturday morning's little recovery run too - cold and thunderstormy. I didn't think it was time to HTFU this close to the marathon. Sunday's 12 miler went great. My legs are starting to feel fairly rested now. I know I overtapered this time. I did last time too - we'll work on that next marathon. In total for the week, I got in 19.4 miles versus the planned 32.

T-4 and counting. Not that anyone cares - but the forecast is now partly cloudy and 40 - 56. Even better - except for the wind. Not banking too much on this - as it could just as easily change to 20s or 80s by then. Got in an easy 6 last night. The plan for tonight is an easy 7 with 2 miles at MP.