Dave I love those!!! The look on your face is totally "oh no bleeper bleeper you are going DOWN!" my legs are a little tweaky - so to stretch them out I did 1.5 miles of a hill. It was JUST what I needed!!! Then I used my new Stick - it was like heaven and I wish DH was here to just roll it all over me! haha

Vibes to Bugs Nice pics Dave I'm making a lot of progress lately and am not showing signs of leveling out any time soon. I did a really solid tempo run this evening. I had been doing cruise intervals ala Daniels but this evening I just went for a solid 20 min tempo run. After the 20 min was up, I cruised through another just under 3 miles. Relaxed the whole time, just nice relaxed effort. Making my way through third consecutive week of 5x per week. I have never felt as good about my running as I do right now.

Everybody keep up the great running. I can't believe that after all of this training, my legs are fine but my back is killing me. I didn't run today. I will go see the doc again tomorrow... hopefully it's going to be over soon. At least we're in taper.. but we have 11 days. today, I can barely walk without massive pain and in 11 DAYS, I'm supposed to run for 4 hours? I'll see what the doc says tomorrow and try not to freak out. Today was not a good day. Tomorrow has to be better. Bugs, try not to worry and let us know. Shan, good for you for doing a hill workout. Dave, why only a one week taper?

??? You guys should consider putting your races on your calendars... don't know if anybody uses our forum one anymore. It's such a crappy site.

Dave, why only a one week taper?

Because I'm an idiot. And I'm guessing I now have some pretty good shin splints. Walking hurt to get to work today. Looks like I just kicked off a 10 day taper. I'm not sure I can risk reinjuring again before the race. Feels sort of like I did after the 10 miler but worse. That improved in about 4 days and let me run my 17 comfortably. I may take a similar break this week and shoot for something short by the weekend. We're all coming to pieces.

I love my chiropractor. Much much better today.... still not going to run though. I will try an easy run tomorrow. Dave, if you come apart just a little more, than maybe you could MCM at MY pace. I know the shin splits will get better. Take Bugs' advice... ice, rest, etc... The whole taper thing I think we've talked about... my coach says you could conceivably run NO MILES for the last three weeks before your marathon and it wouldn't hurt you at all. The only benefit to running during a taper is to keep the basics mechanics up... keep things from getting rusty and then the mental benefit. But physically, according to him, you don't NEED to run. who knows? That could just apply to elites... I tend to listen to what he says but I also know he's speaking from his experience, and he is an elite runner. No matter what, better to be well rested and not injured on race day, obviously. hang in there Bugs. I hear you on the vodka... for me a few Bud lights and trying to get my kids to do everything while I moaned on the couch.

I dropped off dinner for my friend that had death in family, her parents were there too, felt so good because they really were appreciative. Then I went and ran 52 minutes. I'm running by time now, 30-60 minutes everyday easy. Then I went home to my family, whom I had left with the leftovers I did not take with. The kids said, "Mom you should cook more often because you're you actually cook pretty good."

hi everyone!