On Schedule

17 days and 10 hours until race time according to the website. So in just about 2 1/2 weeks I'll be lining up to run the State to State Half. I haven't written about the training much, but that's only because things are going along smoothly. I don't want to jinx myself. The less I say the better. Crap, I hope I didn't just jinx myself by saying that.

The Higdon advanced half marathon plan has been a really great program. While it has definitely pushed me as far as mileage and difficulty of workouts I feel like it has been manageable. I like that it has mixed up the speed workouts. One week I've been doing 8 x 400s the next week 4 x 800s and then 3 x 1600s following. There is an overall progression to it if you look at the plan in total, but from week to week it gives enough variety to keep it interesting. I'm a big fan of Yasso's, but doing that steady increase every week 5 x 800, 6 x 800, 7 x 800... gets to be mind numbing. It gets tougher and yet more boring as the weeks and months go on during training. I need variety.

So with 2 weeks left I am optimistic about the race. My goal is to break 1 hour and 30 minutes. It's a tough, but attainable goal and I got a little boost today. I've had some tough workouts over the last couple of weeks. I've been battling fatigue from working long overnight shifts that require a lot of time on my feet. On top of that I think I've been suffering from a bit of training fatigue. I haven't done some of the races I planned on doing along the way to prepare for the half, so I haven't seen any of the fruits of this training yet. Today though, after a week of struggling through some less than awesome workouts I felt like I had a break through of sorts. Over the course of the four 1 mile repeats I did I felt at times great, bad, tired, re-energized, and worn out during the final interval. When it was all said and done I managed to maintain a sub 7 minute pace per mile. It's what I had planned and executed all out on the roads. These weren't intervals on a flat track, but out in real life racing type conditions. It was a much needed morale boost. I look forward to lining up in 17 days, 9 hours and 40 minutes. But who's counting?