It's Thursday, which means the weekend's almost here and of course it's time for another edition of Thursday Three. Here's what's on my mind this week.

1. Running: A lot of you asked if I was doing any sort of speed work or tempo runs during my marathon training. The answer is kind of sort of. I don't have a specific day dedicated to speed work this training cycle like I did for the Philly Half, but I do try to pick up the pace and do a tempo style run once a week. The reason for the cut back in strict speed work is that I really wanted to focus on distance, and having a set day for speed was making me stress too much about time and was taking some of the joy out of running. Of course, now that I'm slowing day, I'm getting frustrated...nasty cycle, I guess.

2. Food and Fun: Today is National Men Cook Dinner Day. (Thanks to Roni for the tip on Twitter!) So guys, check out the rules, then get into the kitchen and make the ladies in your lives something delicious. In return, we promise to shower you with praise. (Seriously, that's one of the rules.)

3. Motivation: I knew the holidays were started to creep up on me, but Amanda made it very real when she announced the Third Annual Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge yesterday. I love this challenge and signed up right away. If you haven't participated before, I highly recommend it for this year. It's great motivation to get through the holidays without packing on the pounds. You earn points for working out and eating plenty of fruits and veggies. Plus, Amanda has some really cool prizes lined up for this year. You don't have to have a blog to participate, you just have to track your workouts and such.