On The Edge, Again....

So my legs finally feel back to normal after the desert running, and I'm feeling strong and my heartrate is looking excellent! That's the good news!

The bad news is that I'm once again right on the edge of achilles problems in my right leg. The soft AZ surfaces buggered things up and this last 6 days of running (80+ m) hasn't exactly helped things heal.

After some research and online discussions I have the following 2 beliefs
1) if I drastically cut mileage now I will lose significant aerobic fitness and not meet my goal
2) if I injure myself and can't start, I will definitely not meet my goal

So now I have to walk that fine line between staying healthy and staying fit for the next 29 days. I also did some more research on tapering and found that my planned taper was a little extreme (I think the mileage I had planned was still based on my original plan where I was only going to run 70 as a maximum, not the 100+ I have climbed to).

So here's the revised plan.....
1) Cross fingers
2) Get off the hills - the root of all evil!
3) Drop today's double and just run a flat, easy 6
4) Do tomorrow's big run - 22 miles with 11 at 6:52 pace
.... this is the key decision point for setting my race pace goal
5) Drop next week's 100 miles to 80 - but keep the tempo and long run (20m)
6) Raise taper week 1 from 60 to 70
7) Raise taper week 2 from 40 to 54
8) Raise race week from 25 to 37

If I'm careful I think this will get me to the start with the best chance of success. Or, it could all go horribly wrong but I guess that is part of the challenge.