decisions decisions...

this is why i love bloggers. i really put myself fully into my blog... i am completely honest, i can put my concerns out there, and i get the most incredible feedback. thank you for all your comments on my last post, i don't think i have ever had so many lengthy comments and i love them all!

you all have really helped me to think about this, and really consider what i want to do. pretty much the #1 answer i got was to follow my heart and that i already know what to do. i think that having posted my last post it's pretty obvious where my heart is.

a number of you mentioned racing the half as an alternative. i did forget to mention that i am signed up for a much flatter half marathon the weekend before SFM. i keep forgetting about it even though it's next weekend - oops! we signed up so long ago that it seems like that race would never come. i really don't think i am in PR shape at this moment for a half anyways (give me a few weeks and a few more LT miles), and SFM isn't really a PR course, at least not for me (have you seen the elevation profile?). i am just going to see how it goes that day, how i run, and if i want to tack on the extra miles. i might have to hunt down my friends doing the full in the park and run a couple with them :)

i also forgot to mention that CIM is 9 weeks after cowtown. those 2 races are most important to me, just incase cowtown isn't "the one". i need to be nice to these legs. they have allowed me to cross 4 marathon finish lines in the past year, and i would like them to allow me to cross one in under 3:40:59 sometime this year. i am going to put them through a lot of training in the next 12 weeks, and i know that even if i run SFM slow, it will require more recovery than a flat marathon. it has sharp ups and even worse sharp downhills, that are not nice on the quads. i am finally feeling like my legs are back from two marathons in may, and i really think that SFM would put a damper in my training. i ran san diego easy, 4 weeks after eugene, and although i felt ok, i still needed to recover.

this week is the first time since training for eugene that i really feel mentally focused, ready to train, and ready to tackle the next 12 weeks. i have been doing the runs, but lately my mind has just been all over the place. this week i just feel in the zone and i need to stay there, and i think SFM would take me out of it.

i will still have fun running the half and still be able to enjoy the race scenery and spend time with my friends, and i am most comfortable with that. i don't think i will regret NOT doing the full, but i feel like i COULD regret doing it, and that's not worth the risk to me right now.

i think it's pretty funny that this has even come up as an issue at all. when i crossed the finish line of SFM last year, i remember saying i do not ever want to do that course again. it's funny how we forget :)

so a long winded post to follow some long winded comments... you guys have given me so much to think about in the last 24 hours! i feel good though, happy with my choice, i don't want to have any regrets... obviously it was stressing me out and that shouldn't be the case. i will run the half, focus on my october marathon and then focus on december after that, depending on what happens in october. one at a time.

i am very excited now that this decision is made! i am ready and very excited to get into training. there will hopefully be plenty of other chances to run the full in SFM!

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so i am definitely getting the hang of this morning running. after a rough night of sleep i still got up at 4:45 with the alarm, i didn't even snooze this time! i actually really focused last night on not letting myself play mind games when the alarm did go off. i reminded myself how much i love to run in the morning and how i would not want to go after work today... seemed to do the trick :)

today was my first mid-week ML (medium long) run on the schedule. anything between 11 and 15 miles pfitz classifies as "medium long", and they should be done the same way long runs are done... slower. so in addition to slowing down on my long runs, i am working on slowing down on these ML runs too.

my legs did not argue, they were pretty tired today, but felt good as i got warmed up. i checked my splits when i got home and each mile was faster than the one before... gotta love a good progression run! i am happy with the pace too, not as slow necessarily as he calls for long runs, but slower than i have previously done these.

11.0 miles/1:41:19/9:12 avg pace

thanks again for all the help! you guys are the best :)