October 9th Preview

It's marathon day for several of you -- in Portland, Victoria, Chicago and Twin Cities. Here at home our buildup for the EWEB Half continues with a seven-mile run, starting at the eight o'clock from the Eugene Running Company.

The route: Oakway and Coburg Roads to Ferry Street Bridge and don't cross. Turn left onto bike path, to Autzen footbridge and across, to Valley River footbridge and across. Turn right, back to Ferry and store. GPS distance is 6.95 miles.

Bring a drink for delivery at about halfway (Skinner Butte playground). Weather forecast: starting temperature in 50s with slight chance of rain.

WEEK 4 LESSON: YOUR EXTRAS

Question: If I have raced this distance before, can or should I do more training than this program lists?

Answer: More isn’t necessarily better. For these months, please buy into this program of long runs as written. It has a proven record of success, with runners who follow this training plan the closest usually doing the best in our designated race of the season. Stick to the scheduled distances on Sundays, neither shorter nor longer, and take as many of these runs as possible with the group. The average increase of one mile week already pushes the safe limit of 10 percent, and one of the goals here is to keep you healthy throughout the program. Adding extra miles could put you at risk of injury, and a goal is to get you safely to the starting line.