The race was in Wakefield, MA. The finish was right along Quannapowitt Parkway, in the parking lot of the Comverse building. The race course also went through the Breakheart reservation. Shannon Hovey is a US Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier. She ran 2:42:08 at Chicago last year!

Steve, the Melrose Half became the Law Enforcement Half in Wakefield, which later became the Run To Remember in South Boston. Welcome home! You can take the boy out of New England, but you can't take New England out of the boy... Oh and to answer Muse's question, Jim Rhodes took these pictures. He takes pics of a lot of NE races and posts them on his site. Here are his pics from Monday's marathon.

You think it would be better to split it up like you did and integrate it into the longer runs ?

I find it is a lot better mentally and physically to have two big days where I do most of my quality running, then 5 relatively easy days per week. So for me, in the example schedule, that is Wednesday and Sunday. Sometimes, if I'm feeling it, I might turn Friday's run into a little impromptu tempo run--do a 3-mile warmup then pick it up for the last 3-4 miles or so. This is okay because I still have easy days before and after Friday's run. I think when you're building a base, this is the way to go: plan 2 "big workouts" per week and then allow yourself one other day when you're *allowed* to pick it up a bit if you feel like it and if you've been recovering well. You want to be really fresh to go hard on your two big days. Also, you don't need to break up the tempo run. This week was just an example--there are plenty of times when Wednesday or Sundays run woud include a 3-4 mile tempo instead of what I had listed, or any number of other "high aerobic" workouts. Bottome line is the emphasis is on aerobic and high aerobic (tempo) with occasional short bursts of speed (strides.)

I usually do them by time, during an easy run on the roads. I do 8 x 20 seconds or 6 x 30 seconds. Occasionally I'll go to the track and do 6 x 200, or now that the new fields are done at our local h.s. I'll sometimes do 12 x 100 yds. barefoot on one of the field-turf fields. I feel like roadkill right now. It's been a long hard week and I'm glad it's Friday. My training week has gotten pretty screwed by my real life up but I've managed to fit in some decent mileage. I broke a lot of my own rules. Last night at 9 pm I did a 10-mile progression run after doing a 7-mile tempo run at lunch the day before. I'm a bit banged up. I just got back from an easy 5.8 that didn't feel that easy. I've penciled in a few 5k and a 10k race in the next few weeks. The first one is the 29th. Not sure If I'll run that but I'm pretty sure I'm running a 5k on may 6.

Training week 4/16/2007 -- 57.5 miles in 7 runs. Mon - 5.8 easy jog Tue - 8.3 easy with strides Wed - 7.1 medium/tempo Thu - 10 mile progression run Fri - 5.8 easy Sat - 8.3 easy Sun - 12.2 with 6 x 800 at 5k / 200m jogs Not sure quite how I pieced this week together but somehow I managed to run 7 days AND get pretty damn close to 60 miles. Go me. Crazy week in my real life but somehow I got it done. Key workout 1 - Thursday's 10-mile progression run (which was at 9 PM in the pitch dark) Key workout 2 - Today's 12 miles including 6 x 800 at 5K pace on the track, my first 5K pace workout in a while. After today's workout I did a ton of yardwork the rest of the day. I'm gonna sleep good tonight...

Wow I feel a bit tired today but nothing like the day after my first 3K workout this spring--no real pain or soreness. I think I've figured out I'm not ready for 3K pace workouts but 5K pace is no problem. Yesterday's workout was great. It was really warm out, the first 3-4 800s felt easy in the 2;48-2:50 range. The last two got a bit intense but nothing major. The last one was my fastest despite making a detour into lane 4 and kicking a soccer ball back into the infield for some little tykes. And then I jogged a obout 3-4 miles on the roads, did 3 x 30 seconds strides, then joged the rest of the way home about 1.6 miles. Today I'm feeling no pain. Good sign.

how are we feeling?

Rockin. I did a 10 miler with 4 mile tempo yesterday. It sucked at first but got better as I went along. Even durning my warmup jog I just couldn't get loose and my breathing felt harder than should have. But about 2 miles into the tempo run, things just clicked and my stride started to feel smooth and I got a lot faster. The rest of the run felt awesome. This a.m. I didn't run b/c I was out late (for me) last night drinking beer and planning a road race for the summer--I met a guy from my town who's faster than me who I want to try and do some training with. I'll do an easy 5-6 at lunch today then probably 8 with strides mañana temprano. I may run a 10K on Sunday if I can fit it in with life.