Wheeler Farm Loops

Andrea knows what she's talking about.

You must have the courage to rest Danielson!

Is that a quote from some famous piece of literature that I'm going to be embarrassed about because I don't recognize it? :-)

Her injury has really made me put things in perspective and hopefully we'll both train smarter going forward. That passion and discipline article I linked last week really hit home for us. She's more one way (discipline), I'm more the other (passion)... but that can play together well if we strike a balance between the two.

I feel like I've made a very intelligent shift in the past 2-3 months. Now I just want to PROVE it!

It's the Karate Kid. It's hard for the accent to come across.

ahhh haha. Now I have to explain to Andrea what the Karate Kid franchise is.

Good thoughts on downtime. I'm a big believer in it, maybe too big. :-)

On a related note, have you considered doing a training cycle or mini-cycle on low mileage. (by "low" for you, I mean ~80-90 mpw). I'm curious as to what you could do on a lower-mileage, higher-intensity cycle, given your monstrous base, to see if that might trigger any big jumps.

I don't know about too big. You're the only one on this list:

http://elitemarathoning.blogspot.com/p/performance-lists.html

To answer your question - yes, we're thinking along the same lines. I'm going to experiment w/ that kind of mileage this winter (or maybe I'm just being a baby ahead of time because I won't feel like doing 130 mpw during Jan/Feb?). My plan is to focus on the half-marathon for the first half of the year... run Houston, but then really try to knock out a couple good ones in March-May (Phoenix, Indy 500?). I sort of have an idea of how I want the training to flow (weather-dependent, of course), but it would have more intense work... sort of like I was doing before Indy this fall (one session per week with more of a LT emphasis, one with an AT/MP emphasis), but then also add in a true VO2-max type workout in every 14 day cycle. That's something I've been missing, and I really think I need it to make a jump in the half-marathon.

If we get enough snow and the skiing is good, I think I could easily convince myself to "only" run 80-90 mpw this winter.

Very wise, taking a break is not because the fire has gone out. It's to stir the coals of passion so the fire can burn even brighter. The only way we even get faster is not because we run faster, but because while we rest the body can build-up from the breakddown brought on by running hard.