TLDR - my 2 cents

1. People are busy and have lots to do but people always make time for things they want to do. so if you have a mileage goal or training plan make it happen. similar to diet plan where they make you literally write down everything you eat to see where your calories come from, write down what you spend your time doing and you'll probably see some "wasted" time or something else you'll give up to fit in the extra miles if its what you truly want. PRIORITIES what are yours?

2. if you have the time to get your run in do it even if your schedule for the day is evening run. never know what might come up and makes you miss a run. kind of the principle don't put off what you can do now until later.

3. In general unless you have no time constraints double ups are a part of life to hit "bigger" mileage. doubling up to just hit 7-10 miles in a day probably won't accomplish much unless you're doing something like a track /sprint session in the morning and then hit a relaxed pace 7-8 miler in the evening. my best guess for any day I run double min mileage total is in the 15 range. If you can't fit in two 6ers, adjust the one run from 6 to 8-9. that's 20 extra minutes.

4. BRM said he has worked his butt off. I'm not dropping 5 minutes miles like him but I put myself in this category. I'm a big believer of you get out what you put in. I've said several times in various posts on here that 99% of us aren't that gifted of runners and simply have to put the work in to get the desired achievements. Challenge yourself because that's the only way you get better but have realistic goals. Failure is part of life and has its benefits but always failing because your goal wasn't remotely realistic does nothing but start the excuse train and that's a hard one to derail once it gets going.

5. Marathon plan / goal obviously vary depending on your "standard" fitness level. I can't only speak from my experience on this so this is focused more on sub 3 but not sure it would vary that much for sub 4 in my mind. Any plan over 12 weeks is crazy unless you are couch to 26.2 and if that's the case these probably shouldn't be your realistic goal anyway. Ideally I think standard fitness should be close to 40mpw range and plan on hitting weeks in the 60+ range. work intervals during your daily 6-8 milers and hit back to back mid-long runs (13-17) on the weekend. I'm not a believer in these longish runs being at goal marathon pace +30 secs that you see on some plans. If you never run these at or very near MP you're not going to magically do it for 26 miles come race day. Also I don't see the need to run anything longer than 18-20 during training.

6. BE CONSISTENT. Yes its hot and it sucks. Get over it and simply adjust your pace expectations, not your mileage, or hit the treadmill. oh you don't like the tread well you don't like the heat either so pick one otherwise you're fueling the excuse train.

These are only my opinions based on what has worked for me. Rambling rant over. yes you just waste 3 minutes you could have been running. slacker!!

This post was edited on 4/28/21 at 3:29 pm