Deborajen, did you see this article in the NYT a while back? Walking is not all that bad and apparently can make you faster! Just what I needed to read! (Of course I take walk breaks often on mountainous runs. It's faster than trying to run up a 30% slope.) My attitude is that the sun will always come up tomorrow, even if I take a little walk break. I'm getting slower as I get older, but oh well.

Susan, your dedication to The Program is admirable. I can't seem to stick with anything more than a couple of weeks these days...

I've been kind of slacking...went on vacation and only ran once in 10 days (yikes!) and am currently in one of my bad-back-flare-ups. PT for 2+ months made no difference and it seems to be getting worse the more I back off of everything. My doc and I have a plan! Or I should say he has a plan but I'm still pondering it. So in the meantime I'm running a little bit, trying not to drive my husband crazy, and trying to stay positive. It is what it is! I am still planning to complete my Mt Whitney run 09/09/09 but I suspect we'll do more walking up than I originally thought we would do. I was probably being optimistic thinking I would be able to run once we got above about 12000' anyway

Run on!