Hey all..sorry I havent checked in..but I really havent run. Back achiness and laziness. Way busy at work--which is good. But, I have the mini marathon Sunday. Feel healthy and rested--I think I'll do ok but less optimistic about beating my 1:30:00 PR. ALthough the cool temps may help me along. My other two 15ks were in very hot/humid temps. I'll do bett--I promise

Murphy - good luck!!! And we are just happy you check in and miss us!!

Pace - that is a nice avatar you have there! 1 mile... Knee's did not hurt. Used my new inserts they felt ok. Certainly a different feel than the old ones but not bad. Would have ran farther - wanted to do 2-3, but ran 10 minutes after I ate a nice big tuna sandwich - not smart... not smart at all!

P2R, Your avatar makes me smile. You were bookin today. Shan, Avoiding trouble issues is really hard with running. Happens to us all. Inertia, Hang in there. Maybe just an off day. It was a crazy two days for me. I did not drink any water yesterday and knew I could not run long today. I ran 3 very slow today instead. I would like to do 9 tomorrow, but if it's only 6 not going to sweat it. It's a cutback week.

Well I finished my 12 week aerobic base building phase today celebrating with a 14.1km/8.8 mile fun run. Started off with 27,000 other runners, although half of those were doing a shorter run that started 30mins later so not as bad. Pace early was surprisingly quick given the crowds but controllable. I was putting in sub 5min km's at the start and felt reasonable, but was a bit concerned considering my race aim was to finish in 5:00min/kms. That said, I think it was kilometre 6 that dropped out to a 5:22/km and I though 'oh oh, this could be bad' - but every kilometre after that was sub 5:00! Went through the 7 kilometre mark in 33:39 which was pleasing. Got to the 10km mark which had a drink station (i'd avoided them all until here) and I considered getting a drink, but felt very comfortable in my stride and didn't want to break it up with a walk/drink so continued on - another good sign of my LHR training which has limited my fuel intake to runs over 2hrs! The last 4k of the race seemed to fly along, maintained my end race average during these kilometres and felt incredible - not short of breath, tired, stitch or anything like that at all. I ended up finishing in a watch time of 1:06:54, with the gun time only slightly higher than this so very pleased considering the aim was 1:10:30. This turned my 5:00min/km or 8:03min/mile aim pace into 4:45p/km or 7:38p/mile. I found this absoloutely extraordinary as during the strict aerobic phase the fastest any of runs got down to was one run of 5:28p/km which was exceptional with most runs averaging at 5:40p/km. This means I was going 1min p/km faster than I had trained. Another credit to the MAF training is that I achieved something I have never done before - I negative splitted a race for the first time! The first 7km was in 33:39 while the last 7.1km was in 33:15 which was incredible. Certainly sets me in good stead for my marathon in 14 weeks, i certainly have a lot more training to do including increasing my mileage significantly but this gives me so much encouragement to keep going. Hank

Hank - I did the same thing for most of last summer. First, it allowed me to build miles and stay healthy. Also, I am able to run way faster at the same low HRs now. Funny story, I ran my first 5k last March, averaged about 9:00 mm and my HR was ridiculous. Now, I can run my MAF runs really close to that. To be honest, I don't even get upto MAF on most of my easy runs now. Part of that is the weather. Ask me in July how fast my MAF runs are! I have to get up at 4:30 AM in the summer here to run in anything under 85 degrees and the humidity is pretty gross.

Erika - I know I know... i'm trying not too get excited! And focusing on building slowly. My legs do feel surprisingly strong though which is nice! I expected my legs to be tired after the 6 and even the next day, but they weren't. So we'll see... I hope you have a great run!!! I can't believe Boston is soo close!!

Mr. I - those are a lot of things to consider... but at least you have some ideas!!! so ~~~~ good vibes ~~~~ to you!!