My left knee, left hip and right groin have all been problematic since April, when I took to the streets after a winter on the treadmill. In other words, I have some pain running, walking and even getting out of bed.

Since 1/1, I've been averaging around 50-60 mpw, with few rest days. My weight is lower than it usually is and my stamina's good, but I feel around 65 y/old much of the time.

So, against every instinct that I have, I'm going to take a SRD this week and lighten my mileage for a fall-back week..maybe 40 miles, with some light speedwork. This isn't radical, I know, but I'm hoping to put a little life into my limbs; it beats having forced rest weeks! I had enough of those last year.

I love to run, and who wants to be sidelined by injury during training. I'm finding that all the marathon training programs I've seen tend to assume that your legs will feel fresh most of the time. Mine feel like a wreck, but I can still run. So, I'll try to leave it that way!