LR - hope this is timely enough for today and apologies upfront for it's brevity. Jotting a quick reply before I have to go out again.

In my opinion, yes you should go out for 10. If you have to stop and walk, then stop and walk but spend the time out there on your feet. If you have to cut it short because you just cant do it then so be it - you're right, you do not want an injury, so listen to your body. Your mantra should be easy-easy-slow-slow... but try and get the long miles in, skip a shorter workout for recovery next week if you have to. Your training is good and does support the 10 you are trying to do.

As for the race-doubts. Go back and look at your log, look at how far you have come - You could do this now, if you had to! Believe in yourself and, in two weeks time - you will do this!

Thanks Matt and Meg. I sort of took your advice and did my 10 miles today. It was just not going to happen yesterday - lots of reasons. In the end I'm glad I put it off a day, because it was a solid 10 mile run with just a few short breaks - long enough to drink some water. It would have been very ugly yesterday. My confidence is somewhat restored. 

Wow everyone is doing awesome.  I am finding it hard to stay motivated and get my miles up.  I am thinking of signing up for another HM in March figuring that will give me the motivation to keep at it and get serious.  Question - do you guys run everyday when training?  I have done a lot of reading and keep hearing that I should do a couple of days of other types of cardio other than running.  I also train with weights daily.  I am open to all suggestions and very appreciative.

One thing I have learned is you never can know to much....

Just to update here...I'm officially a scratch for the Oct 2 race. Foot is getting better daily, but racing 13.1 next week would be a really bad idea. Will start looking for an early spring race (or maybe earlier) once I'm back on a good path.

There's a lesson (for me) in all this mess. Throughout most of this year occassional pains would surface (mild PF, a twinge in one knee or the other, a sore shin, some soreness under metatarsal heads, a tingle in the ankle), and I ran through them all. And it worked out. Pain eventually went away, body adjusted, progress continued. And I made some damn good progress this year, not just accumulating miles, but getting much faster than I've ever been - and that kind of gets addictive. And so, here I was, 8 weeks or so from a big goal half that I was building towards all summer. And...another pain. Some PF in my right foot. But, it wasn't just mild this time - it would wake me up in the middle of the night. It was hard to run on. But I did. Because hell, I've run through it before, and it worked out, and I'm making all this progress (you see where this is going).

Anyway, I ran through it, overcompensated my gait, caused a pinched nerve behind my 3/4 toes, and ended all progress. So, like Kenny says, "know when to walk away, know when to run". Sometimes figuring out that "when" is tough.

But, he also says "every hand's a winner, and every hand's a loser" - so, I'll take this and make the best of it, come back better. Thanks for all the support on the thread - you guys and gals are great.

Sorry to hear you are a scratch from your goal race, bubbles, thats a shame. `My son once ran with a metatarsal stress fracture and it was not a good idea.

 My best half time was run off a 5 day per week plan, (you need days off at my age),  peaking at 50 miles per week and no real cross training except for a little cycling. One thing I feel was very helpful was doing long tempo runs, as much as 10 miles, and doing a couple of 20 mile long runs to build up endurance.

I am not sure I could train that hard again, but it was worth it.

Last week was a very difficult week training. It saw me come in a shy of my milage target. It was one of those weeks with crap weather, busy life and when I did get out the runs were tragic. I felt awful. I cut short my long run for the first time ever I felt so bad!.  It was only a very good 18km on the Sunday that brought my weeks milage in at a semi respectable level.  I did though lose close on 30km of milage that week against plan.

This week though all back on track thankfully.  I ran all seven days and only one of those runs I felt "bad" and finished the week on 93km.  I am very happy.  My 30.6km circuit I ran faster than I ever have before all easy - full convo possible the full way. Cruised it really. Realistically though my "race pace" isn't gonna be much faster - at least for the first 25km

I do have a blister issue on my left foot that I am just going to have to keep an eye on and manage which flared up on Friday.  At the moment it looks managable and is not painful but it may just mean I ease off a little start of this week - I don't want the skin tearing open. It is rather large.

Aside from that little niggle i am feeling pretty good. Less than 5 weeks till race day

There is an organised pre race build up event where I can run 32km this Sunday.  Still deciding whether it is worth dishing out money to run this.  So I will either do that or run alone for my long run this weekend

Keep up the good work folks and Go the All Blacks!

C

Howdy folks

Well, I hate giving updates like this - everything's going pretty good here! I have managed to stick to the training plan 100%, which is a consistency miracle for me. I am on track for September to be second my highest month ever and for 2011 to be my highest mileage year by mid next week. I ran 15miles this weekend (longest I have ever done) and while not vino-esque in my pace I averaged 9:36/mile and felt pretty comfy.This week I shoot for 17 miles at the weekend - bring it on.

There - I've written it all down....fate has been tempted! Just wait for a nice big pot-hole to jump out of the dark and snag my ankle tomorrow morning! DOH!

LR5 - A spritely 7.5 this weekend. Looking good, no? How's that confidence on the week of the race?

Meg - Looks like you are back from the post race Blahs? You have a 10k this weekend? Can we put in on the race calendar?

Kevin - I'm sorry mate, that absolutely sucks. Great attitude on the back end of a tough situation though I'd draw the line at quoting Kenny!

Vino - You are my inspiration on this marathon kick right now. Way to pound out the miles (or kilometers)! RWC - England look pretty shaky right now, this weekends game against Scotland willbe the real test. All Blacks look fantastic, but don't they always at this stage of the competition? Dominant win against France. If they can handle the pressure, they may just have this one in the bag?

Barbs - Did you sign up for a race yet? I'm training a lot like Simon did. 5 days a week with very little of anything else but running. I have never run every day and am finding that 5/week is a commitment! Let us know what you're up to and keep checking in to let us know how you are getting on.

Mandy - Did you run Pelorus HM? How'd you do?

Keep up the good work HM trainers!