It's not failure...It's wise

                       I don't see this as failure.....starting this week, I switched to the most basic marathon training plans I could get my hands on....Not only that, I am also loosely going to follow it only for the long runs and just make sure I get in 4 miles three times a week plus weight-training once or twice a week. 
                During the summer I was able to complete up to 8 miles on a weekday and not have it dent me. But now that school starts back up and I have to teach I would need to get up at minimum 4:20am, and that is just when I run 4 miles. Partly it's the fact that I am a slow runner but I cannot change that much at the moment. If I were to complete an 8-miler during a workweek I'd have to get up at 3:20am!! That would not be easy to maintain and keep my sanity and health. Last week, I did an 8-miler and was trying to do a 17-miler the next day and felt a painful pull in the back of my thigh. The LAST thing I want is to get injured. Then, I remembered that my 50-miler is 6 months away and that technically I am still just training for just marathon for the moment, and to top it off, I am just training for a marathon I want to finish and not win or even PR, at this moment. 

* 4:20am: Wake up to get ready for the day
* 5:20am: If I were to run 4 miles I would need to leave the house 
* 6:20am: Get home to shower and change 
* 6:50am: Leave home  
* 7:25am: Get to work  

               So, it's with great assuredness that I made this decision to lighten my load and I already feel a ton better. 

Week 6, day 1 Intermediate 1, Hal Higdon

            I am loving my training plan, for once. Usually training plans ask too much from me too fast and I abandon ship soon after starting. For most of my past races, aside from my first marathon, I have made up my own plan as I went, but not this time. I am on week 6, day 1 of Hal Higdon's intermediate 1 plan and it is progressing slowly enough that I feel strong and capable on most runs and unlike other years, it has not been a struggle keeping up. This weekend I completed a total of 18 miles and the only side affect was a bit of crankiness, and not even the usual soreness the next morning. 
              For my 2 days off during the week I am totally taking the day off completely, no guilt, no cheating, just rest 100%. Over the years I have grown to value of these days off as essential parts of all training plans. Only with proper rest in between intense training periods is one able to come back stronger each time. Most of my speed PR's we've earned on days I took 1-2 days off running. I tend to liken these days off to pauses in all songs, they are just as essential as the song, yet, any song would not sound right without these gaps of no song; song and no song, they each complement one another just as running days and non-running days; they each make up a part of a whole. 

              What plans do you use?