After almost a week of rest, I hit the ground running this weekend. It felt good to be back. And, uh, after all the picnic food I enjoyed this weekend, I needed to get back to running.

I did a 5-miler and a couple of 6-milers. Yesterday I did a "long run" of 8.5 miles (which is laughable in light of last month's long runs that were 3 times that distance).

The problem is...after all the marathon training, I'm not sure where to go from here. With the marathon, I had a schedule, designated rest days, specific training plan...now, nothing.

... and then I happened upon Runner's World Magazine's Smart Coach

Here, you can enter all kinds of variables and voila! -- you have a customized training plan in a few minutes. All you need is a goal.

I'm going to set my sights on the Presque Isle Half Marathon in July. The training plan will give me something solid to follow. I know myself well enough to know that without a plan, I have a tendency to run myself into the ground -- the mileage creeps up, I run it all at the same pace and, well, I get nowhere

... and I don't even get there very fast.