I'll do it -- Recovery 4 miles

Today's training: 3.99 miles, 41:02 (10:19 min/mi), avg 137 bpm
Weight: 168
Shoes: WC4 (4 miles)

Brand new pair of shoes today (same model though) and I believe the suunto calibration is off. My nominal 4 mile run is really less than that. Google earth calls it 3.90, which would make this 10:31 min/mi.

Everything felt pretty good, considering. I feel oddly out of shape though, but I can't I haven't run all that much except the marathon in the last couple of weeks. 10:31 min/mi @ 137 bpm. It doesn't look too good compared to the 10:09 min/mi @ 139 bpm on this run though, but I've found that for anything less than 10 min/mi the heart rate/pace correlation isn't great (low enought that other variables become relatively more important?).

I don't really have a schedule yet. The Pfitz multiple marathon plan had me running 5 yesterday, but I didn't feel like it. I might or might not run tomorrow. I'll run 4 or 5 on Saturday and something like the 7 on Sunday Pfitz calls for. Well, there's a schedule I suppose. I'm still considering some adjustments to the multiple marathoning schedule. I'm not sure how much the intervals do for me at the end, and I felt the tempo runs were more valuable. I'll scale back the mileage to avoid overuse, but should I add cross-training to get the volume up? Does doing the medium long runs during the week at long run intensity add too many miles at too high an intensity (>75% MHR)? I felt like I got much faster by the end of the 12-week program, but I didn't feel I increased my endurance enough (kind of obvious now with my slow marathon versus 10K time). Did I just not have enough time given my initial condition or could I have done something to improve endurance more?

I'll do it. I'm commited to run the full marathon on 7 May. If everything goes perfect there's a slim chance I'll make 4 hours. I need to hold in the reins better early. This is going to be a "price is right" approach -- as close to 4 hours without going over. Purposely trying for negative splits might be a way to stave off exuberance, but I haven't commited to this. Since it's two loops, the first and second half should be equal efforts (except perhaps for higher temperatures).

The course is fairly near my house, so I could do my long runs there. I believe that would be a big psychological advantage. It's basically a double out-and-back, so I'd get to cover the whole course on any runs greater than 13 miles.