From the mailbag:

"I am a very slow runner, usually 10 min miles - in doing your program should i still do the prescribed time allotment for the runs or should I bump it up a bit since I am not covering as much distance as an average runner? - my goal is just to finish my first Ironman, don't care about the time as long as within the cut off parameters."

With a 10min/mile pace, you won't see the full marathon run distance in your training.  That works out to be 4.3 hours.  Your max run is going to be 3 hours on the plan.  Running any more than a 3 hour training run will invite injury and your recovery will be higher. 

So what you can do to get used to being on your legs for 4+ hours is to break your runs into run/walks.  Run 8 minutes, walk 2 minutes. (or some formula that works for you).  The time your training plan tells you to run, is the run part...you are adding extra minutes by walking.

OR at the end of your run, start walking.  At first, start with 20 minutes...then as you progress through the plan, keep adding on 10 minutes of walking to the end of your long runs until you have a few long runs with 1.5-2 hours of walking.

Also keep in mind that you can also use the aid stations to walk.  Figure out how many aid stations will be at your race and how far apart.  Divide up about 1.5 hours of walking between them and then in your run training, start incorporating your walking breaks like this in your training runs.

Even a crappy nights sleep is good.  MY BACK IS ALL BETTER!  The ART therapy has worked.  I sneezed this morning and there was no sharp pain in my shoulderblades...for the first time in months.  One more session today and I can strength train again.

The chiro said it was part of my trapezius muscle that totally balled up, it definitely had a different morphology than the other half on the other side of my back.

ART is painful, but well worth it.

163lbs is too light for me.  The run today suffered.  When I have house projects to do I don't eat...I just 'work through'.  Need to get my nutrition back on track.