Good for you, butterfly lady! I'm up at 3:28am so I can have a cup of coffee and get my LR in before church. Who gets up at 3:30 on a Sunday morning to run? DH says I'm insane, and I'm inclined to agree.

Speed, endurance or stamina. Which are you training for? If you want to win the 100 meters, you want speed. If you want to run your first ultra, you want endurance. But if you want to race over a long distance, say tenK to the marathon, you need stamina, the ability to run hard for a long time. Today's good training plans including those for the marathon help you achieve this by incorporating faster paces than you are comfortable with, inside of your longer workouts. The best examples I saw of this approach on RA were some of CNY's later marathon LR's, when she did the second half of a LR at MP. This is also the purpose of the wave run, tempo runs, progression runs and fartlek workouts. You have to have endurance before you can build stamina, generally speaking. So for people building up their LR's, as I am, it isn't important to worry so much about speed. That is the one workout where you can take it easy. But if you have lots of endurance, and can run long distances fairly well, then you should next work on stamina by incorporating some faster paced miles within your LR's. As for me, I am not sure what to do today. Having lost the opportunity to race yesterday because I volunteered at the race I signed up for, I am tempted to go race. But having lost the opportunity to do a good LR last week, I am tempted to go run long, and I think that would be better for me right now. I still haven't decided. Spareribs

Good morning... Nice Nancy. I used to line dance on Friday and Sat nights for hours on end...yes in deed it is X training. (Marathon training, I can't do that right now) Big deal Holly, I was up at 3:30 too.......got up........peed....went back to bed (grins) I have to admit I have a better understanding of stamina this year compared to last. But learning even more, that after a person has endurance (I am getting there quickly as you will see) I now understand more about quaility speed work (within) long runs...I will be doing that more SOON. Speaking of which...my 20 miler yesterday. I had to work a few hours yesterday morning so I didn't start my run till late morning and it was a sunny 72 degrees. I drank plenty of water before hand, and took quite a bit with me and had a few places I could re-fuel along the way...whew, really needed that. I have a way of talking too much, so the details and results. I didn't run my 20 miles as planned, but actually made another big jump...and it felt greta. 23 miles - 3:25:23 - 8:55 ave pace (love that pace right now for a LR). 72 degrees when I started and 82 when I finished..that is hot here this time of year, and worried me. Sorry Tammy and Holly....hehe. Here is what I did fuel and hydration wise. 32 ounces of sports drink before hand - clif bar and banana - 80 ounces of water during my run and 40 ounces of sports drink - 8 S Caps - 6 gels - and pretzels, yes pretzels. I bought a bag of twisted pretzels and put them in a sealable baggie and pinned the baggie to my running shorts...so light I didn't realize they were even there. And they tasted sooo good as I snacked on them my whole run. Why pretzels...salt - carbs - litte protein - helped curb the hunger pangs. At about mile 15 a real good Tri bud rode his bike besides me as we talked. He said something else that would help on long - hot runs is chicken broth...he said it makes a huge difference on his long Ironman Triathlons. When I got to my planned 20 miles yesterday, I still had plenty in the tank, and easily made it 3 more miles (I never got that HR spike I normally get on long runs in the heat) At this rate and having 3 more 20 milers left before Seattle, my long day could go as high as 32 miles...lol, don't see THAT happening (hummm, really) Out for 7 miles pretty soon to make a 30 mile weekend...love those. Hope everyone has a great day of running - Church - resting - dancing - cookouts - and family time. Blessed and Happy Timbo PS: Everything feels perfect in my legs and feet, except for some residual soreness of course. PSS: Oh yeah, even after alll I drank, I still lost 5 pounds on this run....don't know how I could drink anymore actually.

Good Morning! 20.20 miles for me today, with miles 9-13 at (8:46, 8:46, 8:43, 8:42, 8:43), and at the very end I did 2 (slow) treks (staggering) up the ½-mile long hill on the next street, trying to build endurance for that big hill in Seattle that Tetsujin keeps scaring us with. Ave pace for the run was 9:38 (not counting potty/water fountain stops), which is good for me, but it felt tough, tough. Three weeks since the marathon and I feel out of shape already. I’ve got time, though. On the plus side, while almost everything ached by the end of the run, my knee gave me no trouble at all. Gotta run for now... Happy Sunday!

I took the last two days off to help heal a nagging calf muscle. I was planning on doing my scheduled 12 miles today but may take another day off. I have to go to work at 11:00 and I will decide this afternoon when I get home how far or even if I will run. The leg feels better but not 100% I am thinking if I just rest a day or two more it can be over with, but if I run ,I may be back to square one. This is a between week coming up anyways so if I need extra rest this is the week to do it before next weekends 20 miler and the week after that is a 25k race so I don't want to mess up either of those. I am not sure if I am being extra careful or just over worried at this point. Holly, What time do you get to bed? I am an early riser( 5am) but by 9 pm I am ready for bed. Erika, I had the sciatica thing a couple years ago also. PT and A shot in the butt seemed to get me going but to tell the truth the PT part was probably a waste of money. I did learn some good stretches though. Good luck and I am sure you will recover quickly. Ribs, As hard as I try to run everyday ,life ( like work, weather and nagging pains), seem to interupt my schedule. I will say though that since trying to run everyday as you have suggested, it has increased my weekly milage and seems to have helped my overall conditioning. I see you have had similar problems lately so I guess its the same for everyone. By not scheduling any days off when I need a day or two it does not completely ruin my week. In the past I may have had Friday scheduled off then got called to work Sat. Sun. and ended up with 3 days instead of one. Why does it seem that non run dailies are longer than when I run 20 miles? Sorry Larry

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oh nono, you are just what I needed right now. hugs to your ankle. & to poor runless Renee. What a happy start, Nancy. 4 hours??? How are you today? Holly, wow! I'm so glad you knee's ok. Byll.. I like that. "you feel terrific". Larry, good luck with your calf. I tend to think you're making the right call. Did you ever get the results from your tests? Re sleep... I've wondered lately how much sleep people here usually get. I'm usually up by 4, try to get to bed by 9, but it isn't quite enough. Tramps... you were mahvelous. sorry it was a retchy run, & that work as been so insane. Mine's been nutty too. I'm so behind here that I'm seriously tempted to print it all out & read it... (don't tell anybody!) otherwise I keep forgetting what I've already looked at. A bit of a carpy run for me this morning... I'm not sure what to blame it on. Sat. used to be a rest day, & I've added a run & lots of yard work, but could it make that much difference? I really don't know. The forecast Tstorm stayed away & it was really nice out, just a little too windy. There were a couple of races by the river today which made for that carnival atmosphere, (shiny bright inflatable things) not what I was really looking for, but it was ok. Anyway. I just did not have it! S/I was out, maybe that was it? 9.26 miles, 9:41 av. pace, 7:53 max. Not counting water stops. round about mile 6, I wiped out on a bridge & landed on my palms & left knee. So typical. It's puffy but it didn't hurt too much when I ran, so I was happy about that. Ribs.. that's just what I've been thinking about. thanks. What did you do? happy Sunday to everybody.

Buenos dias gozaimasu nancita-san. wow on getting up to four hours on the dancing part too as that and other activities’re what’ll be following the morning marathon and afternoon picnic estivities for the Seattle Rock’n’Roll bash. No rest for the joyfully weary. secret message to holly - obmitote solcsid ton od tub dab oston silli H sheez marathonmary, it sounds like March back there, . . . or any month in Seattle. {{{dg}}} - you too, thanx.