Nice job Bonk. Looks like that's a PR for you!

Thanks, Jeff. July is all about "free" PRs since they are all new distances. 25k and 15k coming up next.

Maybe you should sandbag those races so that you can easily set "new" PR's at those distances.

Bonkin, Have you been taking gels or the like for your runs over 10 miles? 15 miles is still "medium-long" for Pfitz but in this heat they are nothing to be messed with. As I am sure you remember from reading Daniels - he suggests a limit of 2h30min for long runs. Most of what I have read from Lydiard suggests a limit of 3hours for the long run. I will be in your situation and to get the miles in I will be breaking these "rules" on time limits. I think you might want to try drinking more energy drink during the run so you don't bonk around 1:30 into the run. For my slow 13 miler this weekend I popped a gel around 7.5 miles (85 minutes). My issues was not enough hydration...

Bonkin, I do most of my runs in the early AM - so no carbs 3 hours prior to try and teach the body to be more efficient. I will typically eat something before my long run though - a yogurt or a few toaster waffles... In this heat, I am OK with just water up to about 6/7 miles (at my low HR pace of ~11:30 = 75-85 minutes). I will use GU2O (low sugar) for my 8+ milers during the week more for electrolytes than carbs - though the carbs definitely have helped me. For my longer runs when I do loops instead of an out and back (i.e., carrying a camelbak) I do just water and then take a e-Gel around 7/8 miles. That has worked OK.

Hi Mike, I read through your log, and can't tell you how impressed I am with how far you have come in such a relatively short period of time. Congratulations on kicking the smoking habit, that is a tough demon to overcome. I was glad to read that you decided to cut back on the Pfitz plan by eliminating the easy/recovery runs instead of cutting back on the midweek medium long runs. I just wanted to second the opinion that those runs are important. Sorry to hear about your fall. Glad to hear the hip is ok, it probaby got tweaked a bit when you tripped. We don't bend like we used to! I also like your flexible attitude as far as switching plans, and backing off when necessary. The best plans are no good if you can't make it to the starting line healthy. Keep up the great work!

Training Week 6 Summary This week was a planned recovery week and ends what Pfitz calls Mesocycle 1 - Endurance. Good bye #1 you were fun and yes while I learned a lot about endurance from you - I still know that I have much more to learn. Hello to #2 - Lactate Threshold + Endurance. I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 8mi w/8X100m Strides - Check WED: 5mi Recovery - Check THU: 8mi Easy - Check SAT: 4mi Recovery - Check SUN: 12mi Medium Long - Check The first three runs were good - I added about a mile to each of them to try to reduce mileage on the weekend. I then ran a 15k race + WU/CD on Saturday so I skipped the long run on Sunday and instead went to the middle school track not far from home. I use mile time trials periodically to evaluate my fitness and establish pace targets. My recent races have been close to equivalent with my old 4/24 mile PR of 7:43. On 5/31, I ran a new mile PR of 7:11 and over the course of several weeks, adapted my easy and tempo paces to the new ones prescribed by McMillian. But my race times are still what the old PR would predict. I then thought that maybe the 7:11 was a fluke or more downhill then I originally thought. Running a mile on a track should clear that up one way or the other. After a half mile warmup, I then ran a 6:30 mile. This, to me, was shocking - I had sort of expected it to fall. This proves to me that mileage builds speed. I've read it repeatedly from folks around here, but it's nice to see it happen to you. Well, 4 sessions of strides and 2 tempo runs helped a lot too, but the vast majority of the miles were at an easy pace. I'm wondering if I should continue to advance my pace according to McMilllians again. It's worked well for me so far, but I would welcome any advice. In other news, I saw a new high for Max HR of 199 @ the 15k race. I ran 36.8 miles versus the 37 miles that were planned. I'm certain that running a 15k race and a mile time trial during a "recovery" week probably wasn't the most intelligent thing to do, but there ya go.

Mike, 6:30 is moving - congrats. I too do the same 1 mile TT about every 6/8 weeks. Hoping to run around 6:30 for my next one. Last one was 6:47 about a month ago. Based on advice I received, wouldn't use the 1 mile to set paces but a 5-K or ideally a 10-K (especially for the goal pace runs to come).

Mr. Bonkin, you've been on vacation long enough! Time to get back to posting! Hope you are getting some good runs in while you're away! Bring us up to date please!