i ran 4 miles tonight per the schedule. woohoo! i had some extra energy because last week was a complete BUST.

i ran 9:38, 9:31, 9:45, 9:52. not too bad, kind of hot though. no complaints from the knee but it was a short run-- i'll see how this week goes before celebrating eh? i'm sure it will bother me from time to time but if the worst of the pain is in the past i will be a very happy runner indeed.

tomorrow is supposed to be 7-miles. yikes. probably the biggest mid-week run since last year. i'll try to bring my running stuff to work so i can run right afterwards.

i've been reading some articles on active.com lately and thinking about last year's marathon. as a (painful) reminder, i ran the first 20 miles in about 3:23-3:25, and finished in 4:57. ouch. i began tripping over a gigantic wall on miles 17 and 18.

my average pace through 19.1 miles was: 10:16 (fairly tight range, never faster than 9:56).
mile 16. 10:24
mile 17. 10:52
mile 18. 11:24
mile 19. 11:41
mile 20. 12:01
mile 21. 12:23
mile 22. 13:13
mile 23. 12:57
mile 24. 12:49
mile 25. 12:23
mile 26. 12:52
mile 27. 12:16 (foot pod was off, by how much, i don't know exactly)

two key things i want to focus in on and start thinking long and hard about, assuming i am ready to run another marathon by october are: 1) timing and quantity of ingesting water/gels/powerade during the 'thon and during long runs, and 2) incorporating "marathon pace" miles at the end of some long runs.

as i look back on my experience last year, my stomach felt like absolute crap almost to the point where i had trouble concentrating. which means i had some sort of problem with the timing and quantity of liquids. secondly, when a person breaks down the way i did, i think the only conclusion has to be that i simply was not in good enough shape to run the marathon (without crumbling).

an article on active.com mentions that if you run slower than your goal marathon pace during training (long runs in particular), you have no chance of actually being able to pull off your marathon pace on race day. the idea is to incorporate more marathon pace miles during your long runs. for example maybe you run the first 10 miles of your 20-miler at your normal slow pace, but then for the last 10, try to run them at marathon pace. higdon intermediate also mentions that if i recall correctly. his intermediate plan also incorproates a marathon pace short-ish run the very next day after your long run, as a way to get into better shape and be more prepared for the rigors of the race.

i don't feel like i'm in very good shape at the moment. my mileage during the winter months was almost non-existent. in the back of my mind i'm kind of thinking about a 4:40 this year. its definitely not the year to break through with a 4:15 or anything crazy like that because i need to lose weight before i tackle something that ambitious.

more on these topics later on.