OBJECTIVE 11 mi. w/last 3 mi.@ 7:55/mi. ACHIEVED 10.07 mi.@ 8:21/mi. including last 2 miles 7:44/7:41 5:41 AM It was a good run today. My thought is that it's attributable to slowing down during the recovery runs earlier this week. I need to remember the key purpose of the recovery runs is ... to give my body a chance to recover from prior runs AND prepare for upcoming ones. I started a little late from Spring Cypress and headed down the bayou trail. I didn't make it to the YMCA before I met Bob, Stan, and Brad. They were a little over a mile from the Y. The pace picked up slightly with them. They were running 8 miles so a stayed with them after the turn at their 4 mile mark. I went back with them to the end of the bayou path then turned back to run the path for the fourth time this morning. This worked out well because it was time for my pickup. I pushed the pace and felt pretty good. I tried to hold a constant effort and pace. I could see I was well under my 7:55/mi. plan but felt good so I just went with it, reminding myself that I needed to maintain the pace to the end. I made the decision not to tack on the extra mile since I would get back to the car right at 10 miles and felt I could still call it a good run. I REALLY wanted to run the Run Wild 5K this morning. I had a great run there last year. I wanted to run for several reasons including my desire to test my IT band under race conditions, I want to see if running every day (even with marathon-specific training) could yield a PR, I really liked the race last year and the post race band, and several of my friends are running this morning. But, in the end, I realized all of these reasons are shallow and disregard my true goal of a strong marathon on October 4. What if I went out and caused a setback? It wouldn't have been worth it. So what if it cost me a PR today. There will be other opportunities when the risk isn't as great. PRE RUN FRS POST RUN SlimFast Later-water, multivitamin & chocolate milk Later than that-steel cut oats w/flax, turbinado & skim milk | 