My shoe's that I ordered from ZAPPO"S yesterday afternoon are already on a UPS truck to be delievered sometime today

Hey Pam, it looks like your new shoes did ok on their maiden voyage. I got mine today too, can't wait to try them out. Good news about your hammie too! Yay!

Pam, well done in the 10k today. You said you wanted to run easy and you did, so don't worry so much about not pushing it out there. The best news is your hamstring is behaving!

Thanks Bob!! I'm just dissappointed in how much I slowed down my pace during mile 5. My hammie was feeling great and I should have known pushing it just a bit more up the hill wouldn't do it any harm (I'm pretty sure it's 100% healed but don't want to jinx it) and that I would still be able to finish feeling strong. Still so many things to work on. I've still got to be smart with my training so your right, I really shouldn't worry or be dissappointed.

Gotta keep reminding myself that I'm now in recovery mode! I'm trying not to stress too much about the change in milage. In fact I took Saturday off without much of a second thought.

Still a great race, Pam! And good news on the hammy. Recovery mode is a good thing - gotta let those batteries recharge!

Yep, what Mike said. This is usually a good time of the year to scale back, so you can focus more on holiday stuff.

Life seems to make it so I don't have much of a choice but scale back. My milage Christmas week is going to be hardly nothing. Kids have no school and Ken only has Christmas day off. Got in a nice 5 mile run in this morning. Despite the fact that it was quite windy I managed to get my butt in gear and out the door for my run. Trails were slushy and muddy so my new shoes don't look quite so new. Pushed the last .2 miles and it felt good! Need to work on the mind set of racing. Maybe I need to get some reading in hmmmm.

Pam, just go with the flow and enjoy the holidays. Your hammy and your foot will appreciate the break. In a few weeks you'll be out pounding your trails again. Way to break in the new shoes! My first run in mine were in the muk, so mine probably look a lot like yours do. No kidding about the wind! It was howling today, wasn't it! Here are some suggested readings you may be interested in. I haven't read any of them personally, but I heard that the first book on the list was quite good. http://www.letsrun.com/runningwithin.html MTA: There certainly is nothing wrong with running just for the sake of running. I know a lot of people who run and never compete, or if they do compete, do it more for the social aspect of it than anything else, and never race anywhere near their potential. Sometimes too much pressure to perform is counterproductive.

Pam, I'm sure you're on your way to Florida by now. I hope you have/had a safe trip and get some running in shorts in while you are down there!

Pam, just go with the flow and enjoy the holidays. Your hammy and your foot will appreciate the break. In a few weeks you'll be out pounding your trails again. Way to break in the new shoes! My first run in mine were in the muk, so mine probably look a lot like yours do. No kidding about the wind! It was howling today, wasn't it! Here are some suggested readings you may be interested in. I haven't read any of them personally, but I heard that the first book on the list was quite good. http://www.letsrun.com/runningwithin.html MTA: There certainly is nothing wrong with running just for the sake of running. I know a lot of people who run and never compete, or if they do compete, do it more for the social aspect of it than anything else, and never race anywhere near their potential. Sometimes too much pressure to perform is counterproductive.

I meant to respond to this before I left and even started to type but got interupted in the middle and forgot to finish. I had planned on heading to the bookstore before leaving, but didn't get the chance. HOWEVER I will mention to dh that I maybe intersted in a couple of books from that list for Christmas! I'm definetly a runner who just loves to run though I do have a competative streak with myself. I have a hard time performing under pressure (not from anyone other than myself) so hopefully I can work on that this next year. I would really love to do Boston, but not sure I really want to wait until I can run the qualifing time comfortably which is how I tend to race. So my goal for the next year is to learn how to HTFU!