WEEKLY SUMMARY (December 23-29): 50 miles (87.5% E, 8% M, and 4.5% I paces)
  Sunday: 13 miles at 7:07/mi. (last four miles in 6:52, 6:46, 6:46, 6:45)
  Monday: 5 miles at 7:36/mi.
  Tuesday: 8 miles at 7:14/mi.
  Wednesday: off
  Thursday: 8 miles at 7:19/mi.
  Friday: 8 miles at 7:24/mi. in Raleigh
  Saturday: 2.75 E, 3 x (1200m I at 6:11/mi. avg. + 800m E), 1.5 E in Atlanta (8 miles total)

This week I managed to cover 50 miles, in spite of taking a day off, and to get in the two non-easy runs that I hoped to do. Sunday's run was an encouraging sign that running a tolerable marathon in 12 (now 11) weeks might not be too ambitious. After 9 miles I was averaging 7:15/mi. before I kicked it down to 3:00 marathon pace or below for the final 4 miles. It wasn't easy but felt smooth running at that faster pace. By halfway through my run on Tuesday afternoon (Christmas day), I felt like I wanted to speed up to marathon pace again but resisted. The next day's weather was gross: cold and raining hard all day. I needed to finish some work before heading off to a conference anyway, so I took the day off. On Thursday I was just able to run easy again before driving to Raleigh, NC, whose extensive trail system I was able to explore a small portion of the following morning. Then I hopped back in the car and drove to Atlanta, where my conference is. Looking at the map of downtown Atlanta, I discovered a park with a half-mile oval path about two miles from my hotel. So I planned to do an interval workout there. The path turned out to be crushed gravel, and it had rained the night before, which left the footing on the path somewhat uneven. When I showed up on Saturday morning it was still raining lightly, windy, and colder than I expected Atlanta to be (high 30's). The result was that again I had an underwhelming interval workout in the south, but at least this time it wasn't a complete failure. It was just slow. I couldn't even get going faster than my current tempo pace for the second interval, but then for some reason on the third one I managed to run 6:00/mi. pace. The conditions can be to blame only for part of this. I'm also just not used to running faster than tempo pace for more than a quarter mile and need to keep working on this. So I'm considering doing another 1200m interval workout next week (maybe with 4 instead of 3 intervals) instead of a 400m repetition workout, since that's the only type of workout that I haven't been able to get at least a handle on since the MCM. Some people talk about speed endurance as something different from endurance, and maybe this is what they mean. Right now I'm very strong running at my easy pace and pretty strong at my marathon pace, but as the pace descends from there my endurance drops off more rapidly than it should. Anyway, I'd also like to do a longer run next week, maybe 16 miles or so, possibly not incorporating any marathon pace this time. I registered for a 5k race on Sunday 1/6, but after that I'll get back to marathon pace, 400m repetitions, and tempos. Once my travels and the holidays wrap up in the next few days, it'll be time for the long, cold, and dark winter to really set in (if it's going to this year, unlike last). But since December wasn't wintry at all (I ran in shorts more often than not in December), that leaves only two potentially wintry months before March. I have some trail shoes that I wear only for running in snow, and I look forward to getting to use them soon.