done with a much needed break to let myself recover mentally & phyiscally now I hope to buckle down and focus the next 56 days / 8 weeks until the Columbus Marathon where I hope to qualify for Boston... Tonight a little too anxious from all the rest first mile 8:05 mile 1-2.5 6:36 second pace (sucking some wind) mile 2.5-3.1 7:05 pace (had to back off as I was sucking wind. 3.1 was 22:00 Mile 3.1-4.5 was 9:17 pace (nice recovery pace) Mile 4.5-6.0 6:54 pace mile 6.0 - 7.0 6:36 pace overall run 7:25 pace for 52:01 effort felt hard but I am glad to see I have not lost all my speed. I have not tested my fitness very frequently with my increase in mileage over the last several weeks all have been at a slow 9:00 pace. I plan to incorporate 1 spped day a week for my confidence as much as anything... I am thinking I will be better off running a half marathon 4 weeks out from my marathon instead of 6 weeks out. I will shoot for the airforce marathon September 16th and run the half there that gives me 26 days to get ready for the half... I hope to PR or at least run 25-30 seconds faster than my marathon pace which will have to be 7:28 or faster so I will have to run in the 7:00 range for the half. This race will set me up with exactly 4 weeks between the half and the marathon to get ready. I figure 1 week of ez recovery work with my final long run a week after the half then 1 week of decent mileage and two weeks taper for the big day.... Hope it works... I think I am going to very my mileage & pace from day to day for the next 8 weeks 7 miles tempo some days 9 EZ others etc.. to break up the monotony. Definitley hate to see summer dwindling but I can not wait for the cooler tempps to run in : ) The week of made me feel guilty but I think it was much needed mentally & physically... | 