My concern with you would be doing a long run three days before. I see your normal running routine is a long run and then a short run, followed by a rest day. How do you feel: 1. On short short run? 2. On your rest day? 3. On your run the day after you rest day? I'm concerned that you won't have time to recuperate after your long run. If you were/are a conditioned seasoned runner, then no problem, but you might want to seriously look at cutting back your long run that week and adjust your schedule to taper prior to the race. Larry

Good point I like the rest- long run -short run - rest sequence. I usually do that fri, sat, sun, mon. I generally feel OK on the short run and it helps with not getting totally sore, but sometimes I am tired on the monday rest day. This week I did 0,8 (6 miles at HM pace),4,6 friday-monday and was pretty wiped out (I also have a little cold) so I think I'll make that long run before the race shorter. Maybe 6,0,3,race A

Wow, what a change in Temperature tonight and absolutely no Humidity. It was probably about 70 Degrees, a slight breeze and an actual chill in the air until I got started. It was a pleasant relief from what most of us have been running in.

Hey, Larry, thanks for thinking of us. It's funny. They thought Fay would hit the Tampa area, and yet my sister who lives near there had sunny weather and spent the day shopping with my Mom, who is visiting. We got poured on doing my daughter's open house already on Monday and of course were house-bound all day yesterday. Some places here got record rainfall. We needed it--we've been in a drought--but not all in one day. Some areas have seen flooding and some tornadoes touched down, so some people have some damage. Not us, thankfully. I didn't run yesterday because I've developed a total aversion to the dreadmill, but I got in a tough 8 today. I ran my tempo by perceived effort since it turns out running at a 9min pace against a 20mph gust is pretty tough! I guess you northerners know all about that! The sun has tried to show its face a little this afternoon. Tropical storms are funny in that at the beginning and end they show us just flashes of sun and bad weather. Now we're back to bands of bad weather with times of blue sky. What a strange storm. It sure didn't do what the forecasters expected. I bet the Weather Channel hates storms like this. You know, to jump in a little on the run routine discussion, I generally have been taking off both the day before and after the long run. As I consider training for a February marathon, I'm beginning to think about adding a very short run on one of those days--3 or 4. One of my friends said the day before would be best b/c it forces you to run your long run slow. I guess I'll find out how I feel.

I was feeling a little discouraged because last week I ran two days in a row, twice, and my ankle was bothering me. This week I'm running every other day, and it's going better. Last night I went on an 8.2-mile, hilly run, and it felt great. I can't believe that I prefer moderately hilly routes to flat ones now! They seem more interesting and time goes faster. I'm still trying to figure out how much of my HM on September 21 I'l be able to run. I guess I'll come up with a game plan the week of the race. The SMART thing to do would probably be alternating running and walking from the start, but part of me just wants to run as far as I can before I have to walk! It is SO wonderful to run 8 miles and not be sore the next day! Life is good.

Thanks for the encouragement Larry, I think I'll focus on pacing/ running by feel on that big hill and trying to relax pre-race. Last year it was my last race of the season and it gave me a confidence boost to see improvement over summer 2007. Plus, there were lots of nice people there. I had a great 4 x 1 mile interval run (9:35 m/m) at the high school track on Wednesday, which helped me. I think its the massive improvement in weather - its been in the 50s with less humidity around sunrise. PERFECT! Teresa, You are the model of consistency and dilligent training despite the pesky ankle! Keep it up - I'm planning on run/ walk for tomorrow's long run. I'm going for 3 hours at a low heart rate, but that should take me over the 13.1 mark, maybe 14? Vixi, I try to run 5 days a week. I vote for: rest, long, short/easy, rest, run, run, run Happy Friday A

Vixi/Ayola, So you see that we all have our own preferences as to rest or run. But I think that you are getting the message, experiment, see what works for you and how you feel and how the body reacts. But listen to your body and if you do decide to run after a long run, then run "EASY". Larry

I did 10 miles today, must be close to Simons 17K. First time that I can ever recall, that I got a rub burn. Will have to watch that. Had a very unusual sight today during my run. About 4.5 miles into my run, going down the east side of the river on a fairly narrow winding road. Two State Police on motor cylces came up the road. We have a residenet state trooper and the only thing I've ever seen out here are cruisers, so seeing them on Bikes was odd, but I waved. About a minute later, still coming up the road I could hear blasts of siriens. All of a sudden around the corner comes about a dozen troopers on motor cycles and following them must have been a thousand motor cycles. The road I was running on is over 4 miles long. I picked them up about the first half mile and didn't see the last one until about a half mile to go. They were obviously having some type of bike rally. It was pretty neat, yet at the same time quite nerve wrecking. The cops had shut the road down, so they had the road all to themselves except for an occassional car pulled off the side of the road. I decided to run on the right side rather than left side of the road but in many cases, I wasn't much safer as they were often not paying attention and riding all of the way on the left side (their left) of the road. Then it was the constant roar of Harleys, which was deafening at times and all of the exhaust. With all of that going on and having to really watch out for them, it was pretty hard to concentrate on running. A lot of them werer pretty cool and wave and at a few points, they were choked off and just about stopped and say hello and stuff. Of course there were also a few pretty good looking babes on the back and in some cases riding, so that scenery was pretty good. I could hear them going down the west side of the river (I had already made that loop and I picked them back up again as I went out from 8.5 mile point to another road for a 3/4 M up and back to get my ten in. Many of them recognized me and, waved, or siad hey, that's the same guy we saw before. So I think they were pretty amazed that I had covered so much territory. I've got to watch the news tonight and find out what the rally was for. I'm wondering if it was part of the rally for "Run for Fallen". Take care every one and have a great week.

Well, well. Amazing how your legs feel great after one day off, but absolutely awful after 4 days off. My mom's been visiting and my husband traveling, so no running for me from Thursday through Sunday. Result: today's six were tough! Back on the plan this week, though. I suppose having missed so many training days I should ease back into it instead of pretending I didn't miss any time. Went to the podiatrist to check a toenail out (thought it had a yuck fungus or something but turned out to be just bruised which is funny b/c it's white, not black) and he told me that it happened b/c my arches flatten out so much that my second toe is actually bending to grip the ground, resulting in "hammering" the ground when I run. I actually have felt it before, but I thought it was an alternation of my stride from my tendinitis issue. Anyway, another doc recommending custom orthotics. Says the $400 investment would last between 2-10 years, depending on how much they're worn. Based on how quickly my shoes wear out, I would guess I'd be on the low end of that. I'm not sure I'm going to sell dh on that one. Thanks for asking about my running, Ayola. As you can see, we're going to have to wait for that experiment. Simon, I think your shirt is funny. Let us know if the golfers agree. Larry, I wanted to run a 10k yesterday to support Run for the Fallen. I'm sorry I couldn't but it sounds like your run sounds like you had quite the sights and sounds! Happy running week, everyone!