Bonkin, Sorry - missed your post earlier... To your questions - both. I think the mile and 5-K correlate well, but not beyond. I think a 5-K, 8-K, 10-K are better for training paces and probably just 10-K+ for marathon pace. Just my $.02

Training Week 8 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 6mi w/6x100m Strides - Skipped WED: 12mi Medium Long - Skipped FRI: 11mi w/6 Mi @ Tempo - Skipped SAT: 5mi Recovery - Skipped SUN: 20mi Long - Checkish So as you saw in the previous week's update, I was on vacation for most of this week and decided not to run while on vacation. Not only did I eat like a pig - I also succumbed to my evil old ways and got back to smoking with my brother. Yes, I know it was stupid. Yes, I know it wasn't going to help my marathon training. Yes, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Yes, I got it out of my system and have been smoke free again for three days. A week of no running, bad eating, and smoking had me pretty worried about my 20 miler planned for Sunday. I've not been happy with my belt mounted Camelbak, so on Saturday afternoon, I took my daughter to a local running store and picked up a couple new water bottles. I ended up getting one of the hand-held ones with a strap and a belt mounted bottle system. Both of them are made by UD. I didn't think I would like the hand held one, but I ended up loving it, and using the belt mounted bottle to refill the hand held. I think the smoking and the heat took it's toll on me, but I still managed to get in 17 miles. Not quite the 20 miles that the schedule was looking for, but long enough to qualify for my first ever "Long Run" (according to Pfitz). I ran 17 miles versus the 54 miles that were planned.

Bonkin, Sorry - missed your post earlier... To your questions - both. I think the mile and 5-K correlate well, but not beyond. I think a 5-K, 8-K, 10-K are better for training paces and probably just 10-K+ for marathon pace. Just my $.02

Jeff, Thanks - I think I'll take your advice and run a trial 10k to reset my paces rather than using my 1 mile time trials.

Ok Mike, vacation is over!!! Now that it's out of your system, time to get back on track! You are a brave man to even attempt a 20 miler after all that other stuff! Great job getting 17 miles in! Here's something for you to try next time you are with your brother. You shared a smoke with him, so it's only fair that he shares a run with you. Maybe you can get him off of one and hooked on the other. Welcome back, glad you had a good time!

Training Week 9 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 6mi Recovery - Check WED: 14mi Medium Long - Check THU: 6 Mi Recovery - Check (Ran it on Friday) SAT: 6mi w/6x100m Strides - Check SUN: 15mi w/12 Mi @ MP - Checkish All in all a very good week. I've stayed off the smokes, but I could still feel them killing my lungs. Between that and the heat my pace sucked pretty bad most of the week. Oh well, a good lesson was learned - don't play with fire (smokes) because you'll get burned (re-addicted). So all of the runs this week went well and as planned except for Sunday. This was supposed to be 15 miles with 12 miles at marathon pace - which for me right now is about 9 m/m. After a warmup mile, I started pushing the pace over the next three miles. It was a struggle getting even to 9:30 pace. So I decided it would be better to just run the rest of the 15 miles at easy pace rather than burn out trying to run it too fast. When I got close to hitting the turn around point for 15, I decided to keep on going and try for 18. Last mile was brutal as I had run out of water at 16 or so - but I made it. So I have three highlights to take away from this week: 1) I'm back on track and running my plan again. 2) I had my first 50 mile week. 3) I had my first 18 mile run. I never in a million years would have imagined I would ever be saying this: Next week is a recovery/step back week and I only have to run 43 miles. I ran 50.4 miles versus the 47 miles that were planned.

Thanks, Bob! I read somewhere on RA yesterday about how training for fall marathons has the downside of having to train in the heat, but the upside of running the race in cooler temperatures, making for a good performance. I'm hoping that all this running in the heat has a good payoff come October 13th.

Training Week 10 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 8mi Easy - Check WED: 8mi w/5x600m @ 5k Pace - Check THU: 5 Mi Recovery - Half Check SAT: 8mi w/8x100m Strides - Check SUN: 14mi Medium Long - Nope So the week started off good - Tueday and Wednesday's runs went fine. I was a little worried about my first speedwork run on Wednesday, but I was worried for nothing - it went great. On Thursday, I was a little tired from the 50 miles of the previous week and Wednesday night's speedwork. I picked up a new pair of shoes - some Brooks Dyad 4's. So on Friday I get out to run the 5 mile recovery run that was planned for Thursday. I was a little sore to start out with - but the new shoes felt like blocks on the end of my feet - very unresponsive. They just felt wrong and I ended up bailing on the run halfway through. Saturday morning - the family went to my wife's first 5k - she finished a little slower than she wanted but had fun. Most of all - it got her past the first race jitters. When I got home, knocked out my 8+ miler in some of the older shoes and then went to the running store to return and replace the yucky Brooks. John, at the store, ended up putting me into some Mizune Wave Inspires. I'll give those a whirl on one my next runs. I also picked up The Stick while there - felt great on my legs. So this morning I head out to do my 14 miler. My outside quads and my left hamstring were really tight today. I ran the first mile or so at 10:30ish pace for warmup and kept hoping things would loosen up - they didn't. I run/walked the next mile. Still nada. So I said screw i t - there's no way I'm getting 14 done today and decided to just keep walking to a new park that just opened up and then walked home. Ah well, can't be perfect and it was supposed to be a recovery week. Hopefully, with today's short mileage and Monday's a rest day - I will be back to normal for Tuesday's run. I definitely think I'm going to trim down next week's 55 mile plan down into the 45 mile range. I ran 34.8 miles versus the 43 miles that were planned.

Mike, sorry your week ended the way it did after starting out so promising! What do you think is going on with the hamstring? You were smart no to try to push through it. You also did a good thing by picking up "the stick"! Welcome to the club! And welcome to the Mizuno club, I'm a big fan of that brand. I think Pam uses them as well. Congrats to your wife on her 1st 5k! Who cares what her time was, she broke the ice and got out there, that's what really matters! Here's to many more for her! So overall, you still got some decent miles in last week, I wouldn't sweat it. I hope this week coming up is a good one for you! Use the stick!

Thanks for the encouragement, Bob. My left hammy has had tightness problems since I started running. It's typically been a little weaker than my right ham and my hams are generally too weak compared to my quads. It got a lot better a couple months ago and I stopped working with the weights to keep things in balance. I guess I answered my own question and need to get out to the weights again. Sounds like a good plan for tonight since it's an off day for running anyway. I like the stick a lot! I've been using a rolling pin strangely enough - the stick is sooo much better though. It already feels like its helped loosen up my quads. We'll see if the weights help the hammy out over the next few weeks.