Finally...

I'm starting to feel like me again!

Man. Whatever the heck this bug was that I caught was ROTTEN. I guess it could have been worse--I wasn't throwing up--but it reminded me of when I got Mono freshman year of college, and my throat was so swollen that I was snoring so loudly that poor DaisyDuc had to carry her mattress into another room to sleep in one night.

(Seriously. Poor Daisy couldn't sleep a wink and didn't want to wake me up. I woke up and looked down to see my bunk mate gone--mattress and all!)

My throat is much better and I'm feeling a lot more like me, but I won't be doing any training today. Or, tomorrow. That will be almost a whole week off. Which led me to my previous post's ruminations.

From what I have been discussing with those who know this stuff, it seems that (big surprise here) I'm freaking out a bit for not much reason. I need to remember the consistent work I've done since January. The speedwork, tempo runs, and various long runs in the 10-12 mile range as well as a 13 and 14 mile run already. And this weekend, provided I continue to feel better, I'll do 12-14 again. So that will mean I will have ALREADY RAN THREE HALF MARATHONS. I have covered this distance three times. Each time having a successful negative split.

My mileage has been lower than I'd like, but I've also been swimming and cycling a teensy bit, so that should help a bit. I've seen lots of my triathlon friends greatly improve their race times from adding cycling to their routine, so I'm not going to worry about it for now.

I also have a history of my head being my biggest enemy on race day. I know I am capable of doing well on the 18th, and I think I need to make mental training just as high of a priority as I will my next two weeks of runs.

So here's the plan:

A Goal: run a 1:50 half. Follow pacers for first 11 miles, then dig deep for the last 2 on my own when they turn off on the marathon course. Then grill out and drink beer with TriShannon.

B Goal: Stick with pacers for first few miles, and run the rest on my own. Go 1:54 or less. Then grill out and drink beer with TriShannon.

C Goal: Stick with pacers for first few miles, run the rest on my own and decided just to finish, high-fiving as many people as I can along the way. Finish. Then grill out and drink beer with TriShannon.

If I don't give it a shot, I'll kick myself. I've put in a great deal of time and consistent training for a while now, as well as sort of already running "three half marathons" in training. I need to go for this. I can go for this.

First task: get 100% better.

Next task: kick butt.