I just got back from my speed clinic at the shoe store. It was very interesting and told me stuff I had no idea about. Basically, what it came down to was that if you run your race at a 10 minutes per mile pace, and this is your 100% effort, your training pace should be 80% of the 10 minutes per mile. So, your training speed should be 12 minutes per mile. I find this much more reassuring since what it means is that I don't have to bust my rear end on the track to progress. I can move along at a less than blinding pace and hopefully, do much better in the actual race. The woman running the clinic also said that for a training run, I should not be sore afterwards or the next day. I should feel "invigorated." That is her word. I don't know that I will ever feel invigorated after running, but hope springs eternal!

If I do feel sore or hurt, that means that I have been training too hard and I should back off. Also, if I am sore, her advice was that I should not run for several days -- the number of days off would be equal to the number of miles I ran that made me sore. The final bit of wisdom was that since I am doing a triathlon, and I feel more comfortable with swimming and biking, I should concentrate on those two things and do minimal running since the effect on my body of training in the first two events will carry over to the running section of the race. Obviously, this is great since it means that I should (she advised) only be on the treadmill for 30 minutes about 3 times a week to start (running one minute, walking one minute, repeat until 30 min. go by), and only increase once a week by only 10%. So this is what I am going to try to do. I will keep you posted on my progress!