From reading last night on hill training, I think you're right about the first half mile. In fact - it's probably more than sufficient for either of us. I'm going to continue with the recovery running for the next 4-5 days and maybe try a hill workout next week. When I was looking to see how to integrate it into my marathon training plan, I saw that Pfitz treats hill running as a replacement for resistance training - both of which he looks at as supplemental training. So I found (among others) this article and plan to use the Hill Intervals section as they say it is the most basic yet one of the most beneficial sessions.

Awesome. I think Courtney98 is also running the half - and jlynnbob may be running the full with his son - his son is doing his first marathon that day - last I heard.

I'm doing great, Pam! Thanks for asking. After all the stories I hear (sometimes here - lots at work) about people that can barely walk after their first marathon - I'm shocked at how good I feel to be honest. I'm actually trying to balance being totally surprised at my pace picking up post marathon + the onset of the cool weather with Bob's advice (to you - but I'm trying to absorb it as well) to make sure to run the recovery runs slow. Got a little twinge in the ankle last night - wondering if it's the shoes. Got almost 300 miles on that pair and being pretty heavy - it may be time to retire them. I'll swap to a different pair for tonight and see how it goes. Really looking to take advantage of this marathon training to blow away my half time on 11/4. I think sub-2 is a no-brainer - so may shoot for 1:50/1:55 and see how it goes. Bob - I got the Core Performance Endurance book in the mail and finished reading it last night. Very interesting. I'm going to have to think about whether/how much time I want to commit to that program. As you know I tried the Around the World workout - and am not looking forward to it again. I'm thinking the solution may be to go back to my friend's original plan of just some situps, pushups, and pullups to ease myself into it. Also - today is day 10 with NO SMOKES! The hack has gone away (mostly). Feeling good!

So I never did updates for my final weeks of marathon training. I really set out to do this log for two reasons - 1) to get advice from people smarter and/or more experienced than me and 2) to have a historical place for me to come back and learn from my mistakes. If I sound negative, please don't think I'm beating myself up or feeling bad - I'm feeling great right now - I just wanted to record what happened before I forget. So here we go: Training Week 16 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 8mi w/5x600m - Check WED: 5mi Recovery - Skipped THU: 4mi w/6x100m - Skipped SAT: 8-10k Race - Skipped SUN: 16mi Medium Long - Yep - Skipped this one, too. This was the first week of taper and BOY did I over do the taper part. No idea why I skipped so many runs other than I thought I was "saving my strength" for the marathon. And too busy satisfying my smoking addiction. I ran 7.8 miles versus the 43 miles that were planned. Ouch! Training Week 17 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: TUE: 7mi w/8x100m - Check WED: 8mi w/3x1600m - Sort of Check. FRI: 5mi w/6x100m - Skipped SUN: 12mi Medium Long - Yep - Skipped this one, too. I over did the taper part again. No idea why I skipped so many runs other than I thought I was "saving my strength" for the marathon. And too busy satisfying my smoking addiction. Same pathetic excuses as last time. I got a little confused and ended up running an easy with strides instead of an interval workout. Oh well. I ran 11.9 miles versus the 32 miles that were planned. Ouch! Training Week 18 Summary I was scheduled to do the following: MON: 6mi Recovery - Check TUE: 7mi w/2mi @ MP - Check THU: 5mi w/6x100m - Skipped (2 Mile walk instead) FRI: 4mi Recovery - Skipped SAT: 26.2 - Check SUN: Rest - Nope (3 mile run instead) RACE WEEK! So I ran alot closer to the plan this week. I skipped the one on Thursday due to traveling and walked around town for 2ish miles just to get the kinks out. Friday I was too afraid to run anything after all the hiking we did + with the marathon the next morning. Ran the marathon as planned. Sunday - instead of resting I ended up running 3 something miles. Not sure why, but it felt good. I ran 45.5 miles versus the 48.2 miles that were planned.

Things I should have done better in my first marathon training program: Things I should pay better attention to in my next marathon training program: 1) Don't skip so many long runs. I only ran 20 miles one time instead of the 3 times that Pfitz had planned for me. I also skipped an 18 and maybe a couple of the 17's also. Only one of these was due to injury (the glass foot week). The rest were because I somehow found an excuse to not do it. 2) Don't try to run more than 45 miles a week until my body is better prepared. I knew going into the 55 mpw (peak) plan that I was being overly ambitious. I knew I would have to cut out some recovery runs to keep the mileage down. However, I'm bull headed and still had to run a couple 50 mile weeks - probably just so I could say I did. 3) Don't smoke. I know this obvious to those of you on the outside looking in. But when I was just "sneaking" one or two - here and there. I thought I could get away with it and put them down again. I was wrong. My training suffered for it. Both in not able to give what I wanted and using it as a crutch/excuse to skip runs. 4) Don't overeat. I had planned, silently, to lose another 5-10 pounds while doing the training plan. I thought, "I've already lost 25". Losing another 5-10 should be easy with all these miles. Wrong again. It's too easy, for me anyway, to pile on the calories with the excuse of "carb-loading". I'm down 5 pounds already since the marathon and really want to get to or below 185 before Cowtown (that's 10 more pounds for those of you out in TV land). 5) Don't skip the MP runs Pfitz doesn't put many MP runs into the plans. My upcoming 12 week plan only has one for example. I think my 18 week one also only had one. I had good reasons for skipping it last time. I just didn't have the gas that day and it was hot. Next time, I need to try a hell of a lot harder to get it done. If I can't do it when prescribed, then I need to reschedule it. I think the MP run would have been a good confidence booster while teaching my body what marathon pace feels like. It's also pretty close to an extra tempo run - which would be a good thing. Again - I'm not down in the dumps about any of this. Just being realistic about some negatives/mistakes/poor choices (whatever you want to call them) I made during training. I hope the act of me writing them down helps me to not make them (or at least as many) again next time. On the positive side of things, I learned a hell of lot. About training for a long distance running event. About my body. About eating healthier. About muscles that can be painful - that I never imagined I had. Etc. Etc. I'm still sitting on a 25 pound loss. I've run over 950 miles this year. And in early February of this year - I was a slug on the couch. I also didn't smoke - for 6 months of the year. So all in all a fantastic year. Thanks for reading, if you made it to here. And please, someone remind me to read this again if I start slipping in my training for the next marathon!

Mike, I think that you writing that stuff down is probably the best idea ever. I think that you took a good, objective look at your past year, and noted what didn't work so well. I think the only thing left for you to do is this: You need to first identify at least three good things that you learned, and that you will try to repeat in future training. I was going to say that you should write out how you are going to correct your issues for next time, but looking back, I think you already did that to a greater extent. Seriously, I think you've done real well with things, and I think you've set a standard for critiquing the year so far. Kudos to you, because it's not that easy to do.

Thanks, Scout. I didn't really think about while I was doing it - other than it would probably be good to write it down before I started forgetting what happened. MTA - And thanks for the suggestion to write some positive things! I really enjoyed doing it. So. Three Six things I did right. Let's see. In no particular order. 1) I learned to get out and run even when I didn't want to. From leaving the house at 5am to heading out at 10pm for 2+ hour runs to avoid the 90-100 degree heat - to running in torrential downpours to running in 30 mph winds (today), I don't think I've ever been this committed to a goal. I mean ever. I think the lesson I learned is that I can do anything I set my mind to. The other nice benefit to running in "adverse" conditions is that it makes the average run seem great by comparison. Some people have said they have a bunch of "eh" runs and occasionally a great one. My viewpoint lets me have a lot of great runs and a few "eh" ones. I like it better this way. 2) I learned to finish strong. Pam doesn't know this yet. But I saw where she mentioned progression runs a long time ago. I had also (then) recently heard the phrase "finish strong" from someone else here on RA (sorry - I forgot who). So I took this information and tried it on some of my runs and most of my races. This has taught me about running faster when I'm tired. Thanks, Pam! I also do this by running strides or a fast finish for the last quarter mile of my easy runs. I think this has contributed in some way to improving my speed and form. 3) I learned about exercise physiology and that it matters. Sort of. As with any subject I develop an interest in, I go overboard with learning every thing I can - as quick as I can. I read at least 6-8 books on marathon training and distance running in addition to countless articles and training plans online in the three or so week period that I was trying to decide whether and how to run my first marathon. I learned a LOT. I learned what makes a decent training plan. I learned how to make one for myself - although I'm not going to try that yet. I learned all sorts of things in this area - from how to perform a sweat test to how to figure out how fast to run a tempo run. I learned a lot of other things that I've forgotten too. So they are either not important - or they will jump out at me when I reread some of the books in my next training phase. Mostly, I learned that those boobs in the 2,000 club really know what they're talking about when they tell people to run easy most of the time, run long every now and then, and run fast every now and then. I think a lot of them try to portray this as zen-like or elegantly simple. But really it has a lot of basis in exercise physiology - they just don't know it or don't want to admit it. I suspect it's the latter. Because of these boobs, I've learned to try to follow my plan - but not to sweat the details as much as I did when I first started. 4) I learned about nutrition - both off the road and on the road. Yeah, I know I said I'd do three. So sue me. I drastically changed the way I was eating. Initially to lose the weight, but eventually - the more I ran - the better I felt by refueling on better food and eating less crap. Don't get me wrong - I still love my junk food. I just eat a lot less of it - less often. Regarding on the road nutrition, I was initially denying myself anything but water and maybe a gatorade on my long runs - having misinterpreted what Pfitz said about this topic. Those long runs were only barely tolerable. Some folks around here (thanks JWU) suggested that I stop doing this. So now I plan my long run nutrition a lot better and have figured out what my body needs to have very enjoyable long runs. One of the most important nutrition related things I learned was to hydrate - constantly. People at work look at me funny sometimes. But I started drinking between 1 and 2 gallons of water per day. Never have I been more interested in the color of my pee. Not only does this keep me hydrated for my running - but I've heard it helps with the weight loss. 5) Sleep is as important as training. This is a topic that I've only really been paying attention to for maybe 3 or 4 weeks. This one may also seem totally obvious to some people - but it wasn't to me. Recent reading in my taper got me started and the fact that I felt so much better has kept me going. For as long as I can remember, I've survived on 3 or 4 hours of sleep. I even used to wear it as a badge of honor (sick I know). Now I'm getting between 6 and 8 hours a night. Not only has it reduced the moodiness at home (the kids call it yelling) - but I can feel it making in difference every where in my life. I don't feel like a zombie all day anymore. My coffee intake has dropped from countless cups per day to maybe 3 or 4 per day. I've read that sleep and rest are the foundation of training programs. I think this is a good assumption and will see how this changes my training in the next go around. 6) Listen to your body I remember when I first found RA. I think Lifesabeach (and others) suggested that I listen to my body. My response to her was something along the lines of "listening to my body got me fat and had me smoking for almost 30 years". I wasn't ready for her advice and so didn't really think about it for a while. Sometime last summer - probably when I started approaching 40 mile weeks - I got pains here and there - mostly in the hamstring area. I started listening to my body. Mostly because it was louder than my inner voice that usually told the body to shut up. I think almost everything with running is a process and not a singular event. Likewise, I started subtly changing my running based on how I felt. For example, if Pfitz wanted me to run a interval and my hamstring hurt - I would skip it and just run easy or maybe "just" do a tempo run. Other aches and pains were managed with ice or The Stick. It's only recently that I realized that I had begun this process and was farther along than I thought. Another item in the "listening to my body" category has been making the transition from being a slave to the Garmin to run at a pre-determined pace to using the Garmin as a data recorder. In other words, I don't try to run my easy and recovery runs at a certain pace like I used to - I just run. I don't worry about it - I made a new game where I try to guess my pace and then check how accurate I am every now and then. Mind you, my OCD still makes me use the Garmin for tempo runs and intervals. I also still use it to manage progressive pacing for long runs. My long term plan is to move all my runs to how I do my easy ones.